Only in today’s Republican party would a felony indictment make you a stronger candidate

Another week, another indictment.

So it goes in the life of your not-so-average ex-president. For Donald Trump, it’s just another opportunity to rage against his enemies and raise money from his supporters.

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Pence could barely put two words together before he changed the subject.

For the rest of the Republicans jockeying for the GOP presidential nomination, it’s an unprecedented nightmare. How do you compete with a man who is worshipped by a majority of Republicans and who promises to run for president even from jail?

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In any normal world, Trump’s indictment on charges of keeping classified documents after he left office and obstructing government attempts to retrieve them would be a career killer. But Republicans are so unmoored from reality that the vast majority believe the charges are politically motivated, even though the most damning details in the indictment are taken Trump’s own mouth.

Indeed, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who has made an art out of sucking up to Trump, went so far as to proclaim that the indictment actually benefits Trump.

“I think Donald Trump is stronger today politically than he was before,” Graham said in a combative interview on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “We’ll have an election, and we’ll have a trial, but I promise you this: Most Americans believe, most Republicans believe, that the law is used as a weapon against Donald Trump.”

In some bizarre way, it does benefit Trump insofar as it boxes in his opponents. If most Republicans think the indictment is just dirty politics, the other candidates have to agree or risk losing voters. A few, like former Trump administration official Nikki Haley, have tried to agree and also signal that it’s time to move on.

“This is not how justice should be pursued in our country,” Haley said out of one side of her mouth. “It’s time to move beyond the endless drama,” she said out of the other side, in the same statement.

But there is no moving on as long as Trump holds center stage. Perhaps no one knows this more than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. His whole campaign is based on the premise that he can out-Trump Trump. But short of getting indicted himself, how can he seize the attention of voters infuriated that Trump is the victim of renegade woke socialists in D.C.?

So far, DeSantis has been trying to walk a fine line between being supportive and hinting that maybe, just maybe, there might be some fire behind all that smoke.

DeSantis pulled out the usual bogus “whatabout” in denouncing the indictment, citing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for some correspondence.

“I think there needs to be one standard of justice in this country,” DeSantis said. “Hillary had the emails. Is there a different standard for a Democrat Secretary of State versus a former Republican president?”

What’s interesting about DeSantis’ comment is that a) he doesn’t mention Trump by name and b) he may or may not inadvertently be suggesting that both of them deserved to be indicted.

Of course, DeSantis will have to pay fealty to Trump. At some point, one of the tests for the GOP candidates will be whether they will promise to pardon Trump if they are elected and he is convicted. There’s no wiggling out of that question.

To their credit, there are two candidates, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who have said Trump should be forced to withdraw from the race. Needless to say, Hutchison and Christie are never going to be the GOP nominee. To win that honor, it’s increasingly looks like you have to have a felony to your name.