Texas lawmakers spent Tuesday reacting online to the latest indictment against former President Donald Trump, this one including a litany of state charges over his alleged attempt to meddle in Georgia’s 2020 election results.
As could be expected, some embarked on a victory lap, while others took the news poorly.
Trump’s indictment in Fulton County now brings the total number of charges against the former president to 91, according to Business Insider. Some Texas Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz, expressed dismay over the GOP frontrunner’s ongoing legal troubles.
“This is disgraceful. We had never indicted a former president or a leading presidential candidate,” Cruz fired off on X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter. “Joe Biden & Democrats are weaponizing the justice system because they fear voters.”
Meanwhile, Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat running to unseat Cruz, clapped back, calling his opponent a coward for continuing to support an indicted felon.
“Donald Trump interfered with a free and fair election … . Meanwhile, instead of denouncing Trump, Ted Cruz is focussed on weaponizing the government to protect him,” Gutierrez tweeted. “Cruz is a coward.”
Georgia’s indictment accuses Trump and 18 co-conspirators, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, of running a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the 2020 election results.
Despite Trump’s mounting legal issues, 52% of Republicans plan to vote for the former reality-show star in the 2024 GOP primaries, according to the latest FiveThirtyEight polling. In contrast, his closest competition, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, polled at an abysmal 14.8%.
“The fact that Republicans seem hellbent on making him [Trump] their nominee anyway demonstrates just how cultish and dysfunctional the GOP is,” former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, a Democrat, tweeted.
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This article appears in Aug 9-22, 2023.