Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Sunday that he’ll be joining the growing field challenging former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination for president in 2024.
Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor who worked on former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, told ABC Sunday that he thought Trump should withdraw from the race in light of the criminal charges he’s facing in connection to hush money payments made to the porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. But Hutchinson also acknowledged that Trump probably won’t do that and there’s nothing stopping him from carrying on.
“I mean, first of all, the office is more important than any individual person. And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction, and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process,” Hutchinson said.
He served eight years as Arkansas governor before stepping down in January because he was term-limited. While in office, he pushed a conservative agenda centered on a near-total ban on abortion without exceptions for cases involving rape and incest, a law banning trans women from participating in school sports teams, and bans on Covid-19 vaccine mandates and state and local mask mandates.
He later expressed regret at the lack of exceptions to the abortion ban and that he wanted to reverse the ban on mask mandates amid an August 2021 surge in coronavirus cases.
Hutchinson will formally launch his campaign April 26 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Party elites who are looking for an alternative to an embattled Trump might welcome Hutchinson’s…
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