Former Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday criticized former President Trump’s “offensive” comparison of his legal troubles to Alexei Navalny’s lifelong campaign for a free and democratic Russia.
“Well, it’s offensive to me. And there should be common decency, first of all. A respect for Alexei Navalny, that gave his life for freedom and fighting against a dictator. There should be respect for that,” Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, said in an interview with CNN’s John Berman.
“And there should also be a clear understanding that Putin is responsible and that Putin is bad for Russia. He’s bad for anybody that loves freedom, and the United States should be having a clear voice” on the issue, he continued.
Hutchinson, who was critical of the former president during and leading up to his bid for the 2024 GOP nomination, was asked to respond to remarks Trump made during a Fox News town hall Tuesday evening.
Asked by Laura Ingraham how he plans to pay for his exorbitant legal fees and fines, Trump responded by characterizing the penalties as “a form of Navalny” and by suggesting he faces similar persecution in the U.S. to what Navalny did in Russia.
“Navalny was a very sad situation, and he’s a very brave, he was a very brave guy,” Trump said, adding, “It’s a horrible thing. But it’s happening in our country, too. We are turning into a communist country in many ways. And if you look at it, I’m the leading candidate, I get indicted — I never heard of being indicted before.”
While President Biden and other world leaders immediately condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny’s suspicious death in prison, Trump responded with days of silence before releasing a statement that compared his situation to Navalny’s without mentioning Putin at all.
“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,” he wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
Hutchinson warned that Trump’s rhetoric should be a warning sign about what the next four years would be like if he returns to the White House.
“Donald Trump is offensive in his language. He can’t accept the fact that Navalny gave his life for freedom. He tries to compare himself to that, which is a false comparison, and it’s offensive, and people need to wake up and realize this is what our foreign policy is going to be like, if he gets four years,” Hutchinson said.