Political scientist weighs in on impact of Trump indictment

Reporter: Claire Galt Writer: Rachel Murphy
Published: Updated:
classified documents trump had illegally CREDIT department of justice

Former president Donald Trump has been indicted on seven counts in relation to the special counsel’s classified documents probe.

Meanwhile, Trump is working to convince the country to pick him once again to run for president of the United States.

When Trump’s in trouble, his tribe of supporters dig in.

“I still feel Trump will win the nomination,” one man said.

“The last four years of what we’ve experienced have only strengthened his backing anyway,” someone else said. “We just gotta hope that there’s no voter fraud this time around, and we’ll be good.”

WINK News spoke with people in the parking lot of Publix and Walmart in Cape Coral on Friday after the former president told the world a grand jury indicted him.

“I’m an innocent man,” Trump said in a video he released online.

Before the 37 felony charges were unsealed, the charging document accuse Trump of ignoring demands to return hundreds of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

“When Trump is attacked, indicted, the Republicans and the Trump team are able to sell it to Republican voters as not legitimate,” political scientist Aubrey Jewett said, “that it’s a partisan witch hunt and that it’s not really a legitimate criminal charge, and that makes the Republican base really upset.”

Jewett told WINK News this is bad news for Trump and could be worse news for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“When Trump was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney, we saw a shift in the polls, and there was a rally around the Trump effect that basically we saw DeSantis drop, about 20% or so,” Jewett said, “and we saw Trump rise to now over 50%. It wasn’t all about that indictment, but that was at least part of it.”

DeSantis blasted President Joe Biden and the Democrats saying they “weaponized” the Department of Justice.

Now it’s more likely that the former president will campaign and prepare for trial.

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