The Republican National Committee will not pay former President Donald Trump’s legal bills if he decides to run for the White House in 2024. That’s the word from chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who was interviewed Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Host Dana Bash noted that the RNC has paid over $2.3 million to legal firms to defend the former president. She then asked McDaniel that “if and when he does announce, will you stop paying his legal fees?”
Ronna McDaniel says RNC 'cannot pay legal bills' for Donald Trump if he announces a 2024 bid https://t.co/9yFY2kfPFD
— Politics Insider (@PoliticsInsider) November 6, 2022
McDaniel said that the legal bills picked up by the RNC come from the Letitia James litigation that began while he was president. The executive committee decided that the lawsuit was politically motivated and thus took action.
However, she flatly declared that “we cannot pay legal bills for any candidate that’s announced.”
McDaniel added that the RNC cannot make “in-kind contributions to any candidate.” She defended Trump as being in the target of legal attacks “from every which way,” and certainly there are many state-level officials trying to make names for themselves by targeting the former president.
James, despite several setbacks, went after Trump’s family for claims that certain assets were overvalued. Also, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. probed into the former president’s real estate dealings.
McDaniel also acknowledged that Trump has brought more funding into the RNC than the body spent on his legal defense.
Trump has not announced his concrete intentions on a third run at the White House, though he dropped strong hints last week that word is coming soon. Reports continue to circulate that an announcement is forthcoming as soon as a week after the midterm elections.
Bash asked McDaniel whether the former president will make an announcement soon and if she wants him to run. McDaniel responded that “my mind cannot even go there.”
The RNC chairwoman said her only focus at the moment is 2022 and that she does not even have Thanksgiving plans. There is no looking ahead at present, she asserted, to 2024.
