Citing GOP donors, Fox correspondent suggests Trump's indictment was meant to trick Republicans into nominating their weakest candidate in 2024
Charlie Gasparino: “If you believe the donor class and their semi-conspiracy theory — I quite don't think it's that much of a conspiracy — but the theory here: Alvin Bragg politically played this brilliantly.”
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From the April 1, 2023, edition of Fox News' Cavuto Live
NEIL CAVUTO (HOST): All right, you've heard about this political storm enveloping one Donald J. Trump right now. It’s not hurting him politically, of course. Even the rumor of this happening has him rocketing in the polls as the party rallies around him. Even as those who already are challenging him for the White House or the Republican nomination have been rallying around the notion this is all unfair, what he's going through.
And he's raised $4 million in the roughly 24-hour period from when the indictment was first known to now. Charlie Gasparino examining that and how donors in the party are responding to all of this. He is, after all, we call him our money bags. He is always well-connected to money, and he has a lot of money himself. So, Charlie, help me through this. What's going on here?
CHARLIE GASPARINO (FOX BUSINESS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT): Well, I mean, I think you see a dichotomy between the base and the donor class on this. The base is energized, right? The base is saying our guy is being unfairly prosecuted. And, you know, not without some merit there, given who's prosecuting him and how and why. And obviously, we have got to see what the indictment says.
But, you know, years-old charges of hush money to a porn star is not the sort of stuff that a lot of Republican-base donors are going to freak out about with Donald Trump. They're going to want — base voters — they’re going to want Donald Trump, and they're going to applaud him. And it's energizing the base and likely to make him the Republican nominee. That's what the donor class is saying.
And the donor class right now, Neil, is up in arms because they believe, in their hearts, and I spoke with a lot of them over the last couple of days, that Alvin Bragg, a partisan Democrat, is doing this purely to elect Donald Trump because he's the least likely guy to beat Joe Biden in 2024. That the Democrats desperately want Donald Trump to run against Biden because that's the one guy they think they can beat. They can't beat Ron Desantis, they couldn't beat Glenn Youngkin if he jumped in. Really smart, polished politicians. And they have good records to run on. Nikki Haley would be tough to beat. Mike Pompeo is a smart guy. But Donald Trump, they think they could beat. And they think this is all that Bragg is doing. I mean, he's literally bootstrapping a bunch of state charges to create a federal indictment, to create a federal violation, excuse me, of the campaign finance laws if you can believe what's in the press.
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It's really an amazing situation that's going on here right now in the Republican party. If you believe the donor class and their semi-conspiracy theory — I quite don't think it's that much of a conspiracy — but the theory here: Alvin Bragg politically played this brilliantly. He literally took a Republican Party that was, you know, maybe going to have a little in-fight between Donald Trump and Ron Desantis, and best man wins. He took it and turned it upside down.