(Washington) Republican Asa Hutchinson, former governor of Arkansas in the southern United States, announced his candidacy for the 2024 United States presidential election on Sunday and said that Donald Trump should withdraw from the race for the White House given his recent indictment.
“I am a candidate for the presidency of the United States,” Mr. Hutchinson, 72, announced on the American network ABC.
“I represent an alternative to the former president, Donald Trump” (2017-2021), he added, while declaring that he wanted to address Trumpist voters.
“I think we need to have border security. We need a strong country. And I think we need to spend less federally. These are the values that I carry,” continued Asa Hutchinson.
“First of all, the function is more important than any individual. And so for the sake of the presidential office, I think this (his indictment) is too much of a distraction and he needs to be able to focus on the legal process,” he argued.
“I’ve always said people don’t have to leave public office if they’re under investigation, but if it reaches the stage of criminal prosecution, it needs to be addressed,” Mr. Hutchison.
Governor of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023, Asa Hutchinson enacted a law in 2021 that almost completely bans abortion in this state.
In addition to Donald Trump, he will have to face in the primaries of the Republican Party the former ambassador to the UN and ex-governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, who was the first notable candidate to challenge the billionaire.
Asa Hutchinson “is just another extremist to join the ever-increasing race for the MAGA base” (“Make America Great Again”, Donald Trump’s slogan), reacted the National Committee of the Democratic Party (DNC) in a press release.