Sunday shows preview: Trump hit with new legal woes as 2024 inches closer
As the 2024 presidential race ramps up, former President Trump’s latest legal woes will likely dominate the Sunday talk show circuit this weekend.
Trump, who is set to make an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” is staring down a potential third indictment, after receiving a target letter last weekend informing him that he is the subject of the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation.
While it has long been apparent that the former president was a central focus of the probe, the target letter suggests that prosecutors may be nearing an indictment.
The letter reportedly cites three statutes involving conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to deprive citizens the “free exercise” of constitutional rights like voting, hinting at potential new charges Trump could face.
The current GOP frontrunner railed against the investigation at a town hall in Iowa on Tuesday night, once again accusing the DOJ of attempting to interfere in the 2024 election.
“I got the letter on Sunday night. Think of it. I don’t think they’ve ever sent a letter on Sunday night,” he said. “And they’re in a rush because they want to interfere. It’s interference with the election. It’s election interference. Never been done like this in the history of our country, and it’s a disgrace.”
The former president is already facing two indictments — one from the Manhattan district attorney over a 2016 hush money payment and another from the Justice Department over his handling of classified documents — while yet another probe in Atlanta remains ongoing.
Several of Trump’s 2024 competitors in the Republican primary race have voiced opposition to any potential charges.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said earlier this week that while he believes Trump’s words on Jan. 6 were “reckless” and his assertions about the 2020 election were wrong, he hopes the DOJ will ultimately not pursue charges against his former boss.
“I don’t know what the letter today means, the notification means, but my hope is that the judgment about the president’s actions on Jan. 6 would be left to the American people,” Pence told NewsNation on Tuesday.
Conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy similarly called the potential indictment over the Jan. 6 riot a “bad idea” and suggested that voters should hold Trump accountable at the ballot box.
“I think he should be held accountable at the ballot box, not at the behest of a federal administrative police state,” Ramaswamy also said on NewsNation on Tuesday. “I think it is a bad idea for this country to make a pattern out of using police power to indict a lead political opponent in the middle of an election.”
Pence is set to join CNN’s “State of the Union” this weekend, while Ramaswamy will make an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” Fellow Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is also on the lineup for CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-shot candidate for the Democratic nomination, is also set to make an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Kennedy drew sharp criticism from his own party earlier this week, after he asserted without evidence that COVID-19 was “ethnically targeted” to spare Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews.
The rebuke from fellow Democrats continued at a House hearing on Thursday, in which Kennedy claimed that he has been subjected to censorship on social media for spreading vaccine-skeptical content.
Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:
ABC’s “This Week” — Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas); Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D); Palm Springs, Calif., Mayor Grace Elena Garner
NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Preempted by coverage of the British Open
CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Republican presidential candidate; New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D).; Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas); Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego; Dr. Marci Bowers, expert in transgender health care
CNN’s “State of the Union” — Former Vice President Mike Pence, Republican presidential candidate; former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R); Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D)
“Fox News Sunday” — Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican presidential candidate; Jared Bernstein, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers
Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio); former President Trump; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Democratic presidential candidate; Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal columnist; Emma-Jo Morris, journalist
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