‘It’s politics’: Frankfort Republicans fall in line behind defiant Donald Trump
Kentucky Republican state officials and lawmakers cried foul at former President Donald Trump’s felony convictions in a New York court Thursday on 34 counts of falsifying business records ahead of his 2016 presidential campaign.
“It’s politics — not the law — behind New York’s prosecution of President Trump,” Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement Friday.
Coleman, the commonwealth’s top law enforcement official, has long defended and endorsed Trump and his policies, including Make America Safe Again — a plan that involves cracking down on illegal immigration and securing the country’s borders — which Coleman vowed to help carry out. Before being elected attorney general in 2023, Coleman was a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.
“The American people want to focus on the issues that matter and will render their own verdict on November 5th,” he said in a statement.
Coleman’s comments echoed the response of Kentucky’s mostly Republican Congressional delegation and Trump himself minutes after the verdict was rendered.
During a Friday news conference, Trump put the blame on President Joe “Biden and his people.”
“This is a scam. It was a rigged trial,” he said. “This can’t be allowed to happen to other presidents.”
Kentucky State Treasurer Mark Metcalf, a former county prosecutor, agreed with Trump, saying in a statement the conviction “disgraced America.”
“The indictment, trial and verdict ignored basic rules of due process and equal protection, which are the beating heart of our justice system,” Metcalf said.
“I stand firmly behind President Trump and will continue to fight for the values and vision of national greatness that he represents,” he added, accusing the New York District Attorney of being “George Soros-sponsored.”
Soros, a billionaire who often donates to Democratic causes, has become in recent years a target for largely conspiracy theories peddled by the political right. Trump, too, claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was “handpicked and funded by” by Soros.
In contrast to some of his other GOP constitutional officers, Secretary of State Michael Adams said he did not wish to comment, according to a spokesperson for his office.
Adams has repeatedly defended the integrity of the state’s elections after Trump and many of his supporters falsely claimed that election interference was the reason why the former president lost his 2020 re-election bid.
In part for being an outspoken defender of elections, Adams is being awarded the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum’s 2024 Profile in Courage Award.
Adams was noticeably the only Republican constitutional officer to not issue a joint endorsement of Trump earlier this year. Coleman, Metcalf, Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Shell and Auditor Allison Ball made their support of the former president known in March.
The Republican Party of Kentucky also had harsh words for the verdict.
“The case against President Trump has been twisted and manufactured to meet the political agenda of the Biden Administration, including its strategic placement in one of the most liberal legal venues in the country,” the party posted to X, calling the means by which Trump was charged “corrupt” and “nefarious.”
Sen. Lindsey, Tichenor, R-Smithfield, agreed, calling the trial and guilty verdict a “circus” and a “witch hunt” in a post on X Thursday evening.
“This circus of a trial and verdict is what Trump has always said it was, a political witch hunt,” she said. “Those with (Trump Derangement Syndrome) have been salivating for a conviction and have gotten their wish. But now the veil has been pulled back for the world to see clearly.
“They’re running out of options and growing Trump’s base of support every move they make.”
Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, who opted not to seek re-election in 2024, called the verdict a “sham.”
“This trial is best described by invoking the name of the horse who finished second to Secretariat in the 1973 Kentucky Derby,” Thayer posted to X. “My horse racing followers will know it instantly. My political followers will agree.”
The horse’s name? Sham.
TJ Roberts, a Liberty Republican and political operative who beat former state Rep. Ed Massey in the primary election earlier this month, said in an X post, “They could have accused Donald Trump of assassinating Julius Caesar, and a Manhattan jury would have convicted him.”
“Conservatives, it’s time to fix the justice system,” before asking people to pray for Trump, justice and America.
At least one Kentucky Republican doesn’t believe the verdict to be a sham or corruption of justice.
Re-posting a statement from U.S. Rep Andy Barr, R-Kentucky, Republican state Sen. Whitney Westerfield said he was “disappointed” that Barr called it a “sham trial.”
“Disappointed in this statement, Congressman,” Westerfield, a former prosecutor, said. “The courts function as they should, and a jury decided the outcome, for better or worse.”
“We absolutely cannot risk further eroding confidence in our justice system.”
Westerfield, arguably more than any other sitting Kentucky Republican, has not shied away from criticizing Trump at times, and in doing so has distanced himself from some in his party.
Kentucky Democrats were largely quiet, but a few had fun with the verdict.
Rep. Rachel Roberts, D-Newport, re-posted a Dictionary.com post that simply defined “guilty.”
Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville, shared a response from New York Rep. Alex Bores, a Democrat, who said, “As the assemblymember for Trump’s NY residence, I’d like him to know that we get many, many requests for clemency letters. I apologize for any delay in responding.”
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear did not respond to the Herald-Leader’s request for comment.
Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president, setting the stage for a 2020 rematch against Biden, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee. Both men are expected to be formally nominated by their respective parties at this summer’s national conventions.
This story was originally published May 31, 2024 at 12:14 PM.
