From today's Politico newsletter:
THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: ASA HUTCHINSON — Not so long ago, if a former U.S. attorney, congressman and successful two-term governor ran for president in the GOP primary, they would be considered a top-tier presidential candidate.
But it’s 2023, and ASA HUTCHINSON, who just wrapped up eight years running Arkansas, is polling at one percent against a field dominated by DONALD TRUMP and DeSantis.
A lot has been said about Hutchinson’s willingness to take on Trump. On Tuesday, he wrote a piece for CNN in which he said Trump “has led us astray,” “undermined the fabric of our democracy” and is emblematic of bad leaders who are “focused only on themselves or on settling scores with political opponents.”
But the extent to which Hutchinson is offering something completely different than Trump goes well beyond those critiques.
If you talk to Democratic strategists about what kind of candidate they fear in 2024, there are a few things on their checklist:
-- Someone who knows how to speak in the language of inclusion -- Someone who can discuss abortion and guns in a way that doesn’t alienate suburban voters in states such as Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia --,Someone who has a record of standing up to his own party on certain issues dominating the culture wars --Someone who can argue that he or she has almost as much governing experience as JOE BIDEN himself, but is still younger -- Someone who handled the pandemic in their state in a way that avoided some of the most unpopular decisions of both Democrats and Republicans -- And someone who spends a lot of their time explaining to Republicans why the GOP should leave Trump in the past. | |
| Could that kind of a person actually win the Republican primary? Well, nobody would put money on that right now.
But Asa Hutchinson sounds an awful lot like that imaginary candidate that Democrats fear. We caught up with him on Wednesday after he returned to his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, following a swing through Iowa. You can listen to the entire interview here in the latest episode of the Playbook Deep Dive podcast. Some key excerpts:
Hutchinson on violent right-wing extremism: “These right-wing extremist groups — first of all, they’re fed with grievances. And whenever you have a charismatic leader that attracts those with grievances against the institutions, against society, and you blame the government or an institution [for] it, and then you build in the violence and the racial, just hatred aspect of it, it’s just a boiling pot, and it could pour over the pot any time into violence. … It’s something that is part of human nature — that whenever you are aggrieved or you feel like you’re a victim, you try to find somebody to blame or an institution to blame. And if the conspiracy theories are fomented and spread … a certain element of those turn violent.”
On his decision to veto a bill that banned medical care for transgender minors: “Well, I hope it showcases to people that I think for myself. I try to follow the Constitution. … Whenever you look at health care decisions — whether you're thinking about whether the children should be vaccinated or whether the children should have other kinds of health care — I think there's a limited role of the state. And so if it had been a bill that focused on the extreme, such as transgender or gender reassignment surgery, I would have signed a reasonable bill in a minute. But the extreme bill that I viewed as unconstitutional didn't have a grandfather clause, and took away parental decision making. I said it was a step too far.”
On abortion: “I’m okay with it being resolved at the state level. The states are making their own determination on those health care issues. But if it came to a national policy on it, then I would want to have more restrictions that are reasonable restrictions and then also have reasonable exceptions.”
On whether he’d sign a federal abortion ban: “I want … reasonable exceptions in place. I want to see what Congress does. And the practical fact is that unless you have a [congressional] supermajority of Republicans or Democrats, it's not going to pass; it’s not going to get on the president's desk, and it's going to continue to be resolved at the state level.”
On marijuana: “I think having medical marijuana is something that's going to be with us and makes some sense. It does provide relief. … I don’t like the idea of going further and just simply legalizing. … [But] our democracy is not going to fall if they did legalize marijuana.”
On DeSantis’ war on Disney: “While many of us disagree with Disney — [and] I certainly disagree with Disney on some of their leftist social policies — it’s not the role of government to punish them and attack them for it — the same way I wouldn’t want California and a left-leaning government to go after conservative businesses. … Let’s support the creation of jobs, let’s support free speech; don’t punish [a] business because we disagree with them.”
On his takeaway from the Clinton impeachment: “The whole lesson is that we should not treat impeachment lightly. It has to be a serious matter. And I don’t like the idea of [pursuing it] just because we have a disagreement on policy.”
On his (quaintly) civil view of politics: “To me, how we approach politics should be: We have our disagreements. We fight hard for our cause and our beliefs. But, you know, we don’t impugn somebody’s integrity; we don’t impugn somebody’s motives and say they ‘hate America.’ You know: BILL CLINTON cares about people; we just have a different way of approaching solutions.”
On a second Trump term: “I do believe that a second term of the Trump presidency is not good for America. I think it would be more about him versus, you know, what’s the right direction for our party and our country.”
On why he thinks he has a shot: “Sure, it’s a long shot. But, you know, I do duck hunting. I like duck hunting. And my best shot is a long shot. I could hit that bird from a long ways away. It’s the most unpredictable political environment in my lifetime — you know, what happens to Donald Trump, and his ups and downs [in] the polls, remains to be seen. We’ve already seen another leader who was a frontrunner, actually — you know, Governor DeSantis — virtually collapse in the polls. And so [voters are] going to be looking for an alternative. And Iowa’s wide open for looking at alternatives.”
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