Sunday shows preview: Trump indictments put spotlight on rule of law as 2024 heats up

Amid the backdrop of the 2024 presidential race, the fallout from former President Trump’s latest indictment will likely dominate the Sunday talk show circuit this weekend.

Trump was indicted for the third time in six months on Tuesday over his efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election, which culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He pleaded not guilty to the four-count indictment in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Prosecutors accused the former president of engaging in a trio of conspiracies — a conspiracy to defraud the U.S., a conspiracy to obstruct Congress’ certification of the 2020 election and a conspiracy against the right to vote.

John Lauro, an attorney representing Trump, is set to join all five major Sunday talk shows this weekend following the indictment. Lauro has echoed his client’s claims of politicization in recent days, arguing that the charges against the former president and current Republican 2024 frontrunner are politically motivated.

“It’s a terribly tragic day that we find ourselves in, where political speech now has been criminalized,” Lauro told Fox News on Tuesday, adding, “We have the criminalization and the weaponization of public policy and political speech by one political party over another.”

However, others have argued that the indictment holds Trump responsible for the events that led up to the Jan. 6 riot.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who served on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, hailed the indictment on Tuesday as a “tremendous vindication of the rule of law” and specifically praised special counsel Jack Smith for bringing the charge for conspiracy against the right to vote.

“What really was Jan. 6 about, and everything that led up to it?” Raskin said on MSNBC. “It was an attempt to usurp from the people our right to choose our own leaders, our own president through the electoral college system such as it is.”

Raskin is set to join NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, while another former member of the Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), will make an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss the indictment.

Several former members of Trump’s administration have also pushed back on the former president’s allegations that the charges are solely political. 

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who will join CBS’ “Face the Nation” this weekend, said on Wednesday that he believes the case against Trump is legitimate, even if it will be hard to convince Republicans that it is not political.

“As a legal matter, I don’t see a problem with the indictment,” he said. “I think that it’s not an abuse. The Department of Justice is not acting to weaponize the department by proceeding against the president for a conspiracy to subvert the electoral process.”

Barr resigned from the administration in December 2020, shortly after he declared that the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread election fraud despite Trump’s claims.

Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), similarly pushed back on the former president’s allegations of election fraud in the wake of the 2020 election. 

Krebs, who will also make an appearance on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, was fired in November 2020 after declaring the election “the most secure in American history.”

Despite Trump’s mounting legal woes, he remains far ahead of the rest of the crowded 2024 Republican field in the polls. A polling average from FiveThirtyEight showed the former president leading his closest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 39 points on Wednesday.

His GOP rivals have taken various approaches to the indictment. While conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy decried the indictment as “un-American,” former Texas Rep. Will Hurd accused Trump of using his White House bid “to stay out of prison,” and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called the events around the White House after the 2020 election “a stain on our country’s history” and a “disgrace.”

Hurd is set to make an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” this weekend, while Christie will join CNN’s “State of the Union.” Their fellow Republican candidates, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Vice President Mike Pence, are also on the Sunday shows lineup.

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:

ABC’s “This Week” — John Lauro, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump; Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.); North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican presidential candidate

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Lauro; Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)

CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Lauro; former Vice President Mike Pence and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, Republican presidential candidates; former Attorney General Bill Barr; Rep. Dean Phillips, (D-Minn.); Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Lauro; Pence; former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican presidential candidate

“Fox News Sunday” — Lauro; Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas)

Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.); Alina Habba, attorney for former President Trump; Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute; West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), a candidate for West Virginia governor