Not only does Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas not want former President Donald Trump to be the GOP nominee in 2024, he also said that would be “really the worst scenario” for his party.
Hutchinson, who is rumored to be a 2024 contender, told the Associated Press in an interview he hasn’t decided on his political future yet. The governor will leave office in January after two terms in office.
The 72-year-old said President Joe Biden would welcome another Trump nomination in 2024.
“That’s really the worst scenario,” Hutchinson stated. “That’s almost the scenario that Biden wishes for. And that’s probably how he got elected the first time. It became, you know, a binary choice for the American people between the challenges that we saw in the Trump presidency, particularly the closing days, versus Biden…”
Hutchinson also ripped Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which the former president falsely claimed was rigged against him.
“It hurts our country,” he said. “I mean, any leader, former president that says suspend the Constitution is tearing at the fabric of our democracy. And so we want to make sure that the people know that it’s Republicans that support the rule of law.”
At the same time, the Associate Press reported that Hutchinson has not ruled out backing Trump if he ultimately is the nominee.
Hutchinson has been more than willing to criticize Trump on occasion. Earlier this month, he told CNN the former president’s endorsements cost the GOP a chance to retake the Senate.
“There’s a cost that comes with his endorsement,” he said at the time. “We saw this time and time again in the midterm elections. And whenever candidates talk about commonsense conservative values and address the challenges of inflation and energy costs, they win on the Republican side because the voters trust Republican principles and ideas.”
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