Former President Donald Trump is hot on the campaign trail to win the 2024 presidential election. He has made great strides in winning over voters beyond the Republican party base.

Possibly his biggest adversary right now are the multiple legal cases against him. A conviction at any point before next November could derail his campaign even if he defeats his GOP rivals.

Trump received unexpected news this week when two primary rivals announced they would go to bat for the embattled former president. If he were to be convicted, two governors said they would have his back.

From The Daily Wire:
Both Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC) said in the last week that they would pardon former President Donald Trump if he were to be convicted on any of the charges he’s facing across multiple jurisdictions.

Both made it a point from the campaign trail to elaborate how the country would be better served to move forward and heal divisions.

“I would pardon Trump if he is found guilty,” Haley said at a New Hampshire campaign stop on Thursday, in answer to a question from a 9-year-old boy.

“It’s like Ford did to Nixon,” DeSantis explained. “Because you just, you know, the divisions are just not in the country’s interest.”

Haley seemed to echo sentiment among Republicans when she said it would not be in the “best interest of the country” to have an 80-year-old former president sitting in jail. She also took a passive swipe at Trump by saying it would be good for the country to pardon him “so that we can move on as a country and no longer talk about him.”

One notable Democrat wasn’t buying the pardon pledges as coming from a place of goodness from Trump’s rivals. There could be a deeper meaning for the pardon pledges, according to David Axelrod, who served as a top adviser to former President Barack Obama. Haley and DeSantis are jostling for second and third place behind Trump in early polling.

“One unstated reason @RonDeSantis & @NikkiHaley have pledged pardons for Trump: fear of what the former president might instruct his supporters in the fall campaign to do if he’s NOT the nominee,” Axelrod posted on X.

Axelrod has been vocal in questioning Democrat efforts to forcibly remove Trump from state primary ballots. He called the actions a risky game and efforts against Trump should be focused on the ballot box.

“We’ve run this experiment, he’s only gained since he started getting indicted,” Axelrod said.

Recent polls in key states show Trump leading over Joe Biden. One poll in early December revealed Trump leading in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – all key swing states to win the presidency.

Key Takeaways:

• Haley and DeSantis pledge to pardon Trump on any convictions.
• The two rivals revealed their support as Trump fights legal cases.
• One noted Democrat questioned whether the pledges were altruistic.

Source: The Daily Wire