The list of Republican hopefuls for the 2024 presidential nomination keeps growing, but so does their timid silence whenever the topic of Donald Trump comes up. His political vulnerabilities are out there for the world to see, a gigantic target just begging to be exploited after his arrest Tuesday on charges related to hush money payments to a porn star and two other individuals.
In normal times, something like this would spark a mad scramble among challengers to see who could denounce him the loudest. And yet all but one candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, are cowering in silence or are offering unconvincing, boilerplate condemnations of the politics behind Trump’s prosecution. No one wants to speak about the most tawdry aspects of Trump’s behavior, which include allegations of extramarital affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Their silence speaks for itself. The candidates are afraid of Trump and, perhaps more so, retaliation from his base. So instead of speaking out in favor of the values that have long guided Republican orthodoxy — values that Trump has trampled on with reckless abandon — those candidates have decided simply to change the subject.
