Trump’s calls for political vengeance worry Senate GOP

Some Senate Republicans are expressing concerns over former President Trump’s calls for political vengeance after the 2024 election, warning that retaliatory prosecutions will lead the country down a bad road.

The Senate GOP’s top leaders — Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Whip John Thune (S.D.) — have shown no desire to embrace Trump’s calls to prosecute senior Biden administration officials or his longtime nemesis Hillary Clinton.

And some GOP senators are pushing back against conservative colleagues who want to freeze Justice Department funding or defund special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal prosecutions of Trump.

They don’t want to stumble into a government shutdown by waging war over the Justice Department’s budget or taking other retaliatory steps favored by Trump’s allies.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) says he thought Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) case against Trump was “an unjust prosecution.”

But he’s concerned about Trump’s vow to retaliate with politically motivated prosecutions from his own Justice Department if he’s elected in November.