Governor Hutchinson gave remarks today on ABC’s “This Week” well-tailored to attract some national attention — throwing down on the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump.

Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Capitol Hill “disqualifies” Donald Trump from winning the 2024 GOP nomination as he considers his own challenge to the former president.

“I do not believe that Donald Trump should be the next president of the United States. I think he’s had his opportunity there. I think Jan. 6 really disqualifies him for the future. And so, we move beyond that. And that’s what I want to be focused on,” Hutchinson, who will soon travel to the early primary state of Iowa, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

Pressed by Karl if he would unequivocally rule out supporting Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee, given his criticism, Hutchinson said it would be “premature” to discuss specifics about the race but wanted alternatives to Trump.

He’s running, in other words, should the Republican electorate seem interested. And, that, of course, is the question — are other Republican voters ready to quit the lying, sociopathic, misogynistic, racist bully? Would Arkansas voters pick Asa over Trump in a primary battle? And, if it happened, who would Sarah support?

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Here’s a transcript of the interview.

In it, Hutchinson says Trump is still the frontrunner, but he said Trump has been relatively quiet amid “chaos” surrounding him. How do you bring down his continuing popularity, the governor was asked.

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Well, first of all, you have to get in there. You have to endure. You have to realize it’s going to be a longer campaign most likely with a number of candidates in there. And then you have to also see that it’s different than 2016 when Donald Trump was new on the national scene. He was somebody that everybody liked. His anger, his – the chaos that he did create. And that’s not a new thing anymore. And so I think people move away from it rather than embrace it.

So, you need to have simply a message that’s authentic to yourself, a message that is problem solving and say, this is what we need to do as a country. And that, to me, is the right contrast. And we have to somehow figure out how to bring people together, both in our parties, which is the biggest challenge for 2023, but also for our nation.

I do think people are ready to be – for a healing time in both politics but also in our – in our leadership that can work to solve the serious problems that face us from the border, to inflation, to the economy. These are issues that people care about and want leaders to address.

But…but…

Hutchinson would NOT say he wouldn’t support Trump if he ended up being the Republican nominee. He DID say it would be a mistake for the Republican Party to require that participants in a presidential debate pledge to support the eventual nominee.

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Well, I think it would be a mistake to do that. You know, there’s – I mean I think it’s obvious that you’ve got a divided party in the sense that you’ve got a base of loyal Trump supporters, but you’ve got a – a – what to me is even a larger majority of those that says we want to go a different direction. And so let’s not put up obstacles to, one, unifying the party, but, secondly, given every chance that another candidate can have to showcase their skills and leadership capability and – and – and to minimize the – the chase that Trump is going to be the eventual nominee simply because the rules are creating that kind of environment, I think you have to avoid that.

Hutchinson was also asked about another serial liar, George Santos, who won election to Congress from New York.

There has to be accountability for that. That is unacceptable. You know, if – I don’t know whether you can go so far as to not seat him, but certainly the ethics committee should deal with this and he has to be held accountable for that. That’s unacceptable in politics. It – it breaches the trust between the electorate and their elected official. But it’s – it’s in – and we have to have more integrity in our political environment, in our elected leaders, and this destroys that confidence and undermines the integrity that’s needed.

 

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