NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — The various legal cases against former President Donald Trump aren’t shaking the faith of his most ardent supporters, even in the event he is convicted in one of them.
Trump, the front-runner in the Republican primary race, faces a total of 91 charges in four criminal cases. But many of the attendees at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday said a criminal conviction against the former president would not change their minds about voting for him in November should he be the GOP nominee.
Tara Rabun, 54, who was in attendance on the first day of the conference, said a conviction against Trump “would have no bearings whatsoever” on her vote.
“I know where he’s being tried. I know who’s in those juries. And I know who those judges are,” said Rabun, who works for a mining company in Georgia. “And the deck is stacked against him.”
And in the event the former president is convicted of a crime, Rabun disagreed with the idea of Trump passing the torch to another candidate.
“There’s no one to pass the torch to. He is the solution to our problem,” Rabun said.
Still, while an NBC News poll released earlier this month showed Trump leading President Joe Biden in a general election matchup, 47% to 42%, the same poll showed Trump trailing Biden by 2 percentage points in the event he is convicted of a felony.
Robert Boyles, a 70-year-old from Montana, explained that while he is leaning toward voting for the GOP nominee in November, a Trump conviction in “a real prosecution with real crimes” could sway his vote.
However, other attendees of the conference, which took place at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland, shared similar sentiments to that of Rabun, with multiple voters expressing distrust in the cases against Trump and the federal agencies trying them.
Suzanne Gallagher, the national director of Parents’ Rights in Education, said the charges against Trump are “bogus.”
“I just don’t think they’re gonna stand,” said Gallagher, who is from Oregon. “It’s just, almost it is laughable, really, what they’re trying to do. And, you know, I think what people admire about Donald Trump is that he’s at the point where he honestly is not intimidated. I mean, he’s not intimidated by any of that. He’s not going to like, go in the corner, suck his thumb.”
“What they’re doing to him is just pure evil,” said Kim Proctor, a retired 61-year-old from Tennessee. “And there’s such a double standard. Our judicial system is warped. And we just need to clean house because these people, they’re not going to stop.”
Trump’s dominance over the Republican base was on full display at CPAC, with a large share of attendees donning MAGA hats or other pieces of Trump apparel to showcase their support. Some groups, however, got more creative with their outfits for the event.
Sonja Harper, a retired 59-year-old from Texas and member of a group called the “Trump Tribe of Texas,” dressed as the Statue of Liberty, complete with a torch and crown with the former president’s name adorning the front.
Harper attended the conference with five other members of the “Trump Tribe of Texas,” who wore bright yellow shirts that spelled out “Trump” and white pants embellished with their group name and the number 47, the number for what Trump’s term in office would be should he win in 2024. Trump was the 45th president when elected in 2016.
In an exhibition hall at the resort, a Trump campaign bus with the former president’s image was a central attraction for attendees, who wrote various messages on the bus in marker. But while Trump was not in attendance on the first day of the conference, key allies of the former president were, with many slated as speakers at the event.
Those allies included Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who bookended the first day of the conference.
Gabbard, who has been floated as a top pick to be the vice president on Trump’s 2024 ticket, touched on the legal cases against Trump during her speech, accusing Democrats of using the “criminal justice system to prosecute and distract the Republican presidential candidate in the midst of his campaign.”
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Boyles, the attendee from Montana, who explained that he has voted for Republicans and Democrats in the past, echoed Gabbard’s sentiment, saying, “It’s become very sad and obvious over the last year or so that the justice system in this country is not working.”
“You have Democrats prosecuting Republicans because they’re Republicans. If somebody had done the exact same thing Trump had done but they’re a Democrat, they wouldn’t be prosecuting them.” Boyles said. “So, when you have purely partisan politics in the justice system, I don’t take it as seriously.”
