Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson steered clear of culture war issues in his 2024 campaign launch speech on Wednesday, setting himself up as a candidate who will focus instead on reining in rampant spending in Washington and aggressively defending American interests abroad.
In a wide-ranging speech from Bentonville, Ark., on Wednesday, Hutchinson separated himself from other 2024 candidates and likely contenders with what went unsaid. Unlike Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, Hutchinson did not touch on gender ideology, which has emerged as a major issue in the 2024 race and is an area where the former governor falls to the left of the rest of the Republican field.
He came under fire in 2021 for vetoing the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, a measure to prohibit health-care providers from performing or referring minors for gender-transition procedures. Hutchinson said at the time that he vetoed the bill because he believed it went too far. He also cited his belief in limited government and said he wanted to "broaden the party." The state legislature ultimately overrode Hutchinson's veto.
Former president Donald Trump attacked Hutchinson over his veto at the time, calling him a "RINO" (Republican in Name Only).
On Wednesday, Hutchinson said he is ready to fight a "battle" for the "future of our country and the soul of our party." He rebuffed calls to defund the FBI — which Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy have supported — and doubled down on his support of Ukraine.
Hutchinson touted Arkansas's response to the pandemic, setting up a direct comparison between his leadership and that of DeSantis, who has been praised for pushing back against lockdowns and school closures in 2020 and is widely considered a 2024 contender.
"My mettle was tested once more as governor when I demonstrated how we can lead through a pandemic without closing down every business and shutting down schools," he said. "When I had pressure from Washington and the national media to shelter in palace, I said no."
He added: "And the result was that our businesses survived and we had more days of in-classroom instruction during the pandemic than almost any other state. Yes, that's right, we beat Florida."
Arkansas was one of only a handful of states — including Nebraska, North Dakota, and Wyoming — that never issued a stay-at-home order during the pandemic. DeSantis, meanwhile, waited longer than many other states to declare a stay-at-home order, which he officially issued on April 1, 2020. By April 20, DeSantis had already appointed a "Re-Open Florida Task Force" to quickly form a plan for that reopening. The stay-at-home order expired in early May, and by late September, DeSantis had lifted all restrictions on restaurants and businesses.
Hutchinson's speech decried "break-the-bank" federal spending and warned that the U.S. "cannot yield to China in terms of global leadership" if America wants to be the best. He accused the Biden administration of making America look weak with its "disastrous" withdrawal from Afghanistan, which "was seen as an opportunity for Russia to invade Ukraine and then for China to threaten and be aggressive toward Taiwan." Haley, for her part, has been making a similar argument since announcing her own presidential bid in February.
"Let me assure you that as President, I will bring out the best of America," Hutchinson said. "We will stand with our allies and friends. We will not abandon our friends in times of need."
He took shots at those in the party who have criticized the United States' support of Ukraine: "Isolationism only leads to weakness and weakness leads to war."
"I join with those who say we do not want an unending war in Ukraine, and the best way to avoid a long war is to help Ukraine win today," he said.
"In this campaign for President, I stand alone in terms of my experience, record, and leadership," Hutchinson said. "From Congress to DEA to Homeland Security, I have served our country in times of crisis."
Hutchinson represented Arkansas's third congressional district from 1997 to 2001, when he was tapped to serve as chair of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Two years later, President George W. Bush appointed Hutchinson as the under secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. Hutchinson later served two terms as Arkansas governor beginning in 2015. He was barred from seeking reelection in 2022 because of term limits.
Hutchinson went on to say he is the only candidate with a "breadth of experience in law enforcement," after citing "rampant crime" destroying American cities as the Biden administration "stood on the sidelines."
"I will enforce the law and demand that local prosecutors do the same. Lawbreakers must be held accountable. Restoring respect for the law will not only reduce crime in our country; it will also bring out the best of America," said Hutchinson, who previously landed in the national spotlight for resuming capital-punishment executions as governor of Arkansas.
"The rule of law also applies to our southern border," he added, citing his time at DHS as evidence that he is the right person to manage the crisis at the southern border.
"In order to respect those who follow the legal path to come to this country, we must reform our asylum laws; devote more resources to support our border patrol; quickly remove those who come into our country illegally; and go after the cartels who are killing Americans with the deadly drug fentanyl. When fentanyl is the leading cause of death for those 18 to 49 then we are losing our sons and daughters way too soon," he said.
He also dismissed calls from "misguided leaders" to defund the FBI. "We should not defund the FBI, but we do need serious reform to refocus the core functions of our federal law enforcement," he said, adding that the FBI "needs to be trimmed down and focused on its number one duty: leading our counter-terrorism mission."
Hutchinson waded into the debate on entitlement reform, vowing to "immediately convene an independent Commission to Assure the Future of Social Security and Medicare," if elected. Trump has repeatedly attacked DeSantis on his past support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, while a PAC calling for a DeSantis 2024 run has drawn attention to Trump's own hypocrisy on the issue. Haley and former vice president Mike Pence have called for commonsense reforms to entitlement programs.
Hutchinson, meanwhile, has been a vocal critic of Trump. In March, he suggested former president Donald Trump should drop out of the presidential race if he is indicted. "It's out of respect for the institution of the presidency of the United States. And, that's a distraction that is difficult to run for the highest office in the land under those circumstances," Hutchinson said in an interview with USA Today.
Hutchinson later appeared to walk back his comments after Trump was in fact indicted. "It is a dark day for America when a former president is indicted on criminal charges. While the grand jury found credible facts to support the charges, it is important that the presumption of innocence follows Mr. Trump. . . . Finally, it is essential that the decision on America's next president be made at the ballot box and not in the court system."
Fox News' Shannon Bream questioned why Hutchinson is running himself, given that he has said there is no point in running unless he is going straight at Trump.
"You right now, in the polls, though, are polling at around 1 percent or less in all the recent polls" Bream said. "So, you know, going after him is like walking into a buzzsaw, why are you doing it?"
Hutchinson replied: "Well, because it's important. What America does not want is another repeat of 2020 where we have Joe Biden and Donald Trump running against each other."
That much is true: A recent NBC News poll found that 70 percent of Americans thought Biden should not run again. Just 26 percent said he should.
And yet Biden officially announced his reelection bid on Tuesday. This despite sources in Bidenworld saying in 2019 that it was "virtually inconceivable" that he would run again in 2024. Sources told Axios this week that Biden "might've retired if he thought Vice President Harris could beat former President Trump. But Biden sees Trump as a lethal threat to America — the reason to run and the issue to build his campaign around."
"When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America — and we still are," Biden said in a video announcing his reelection bid.
"The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer," he added.
As the race heats up, Pence said he thinks any 2024 GOP contenders should announce their bids "by June," a deadline that he says would also apply to his own potential candidacy. "When we have an announcement to make, it will be well before late June," Pence said.
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