GOP candidates take aim at Trump on TV — two days after tiptoeing around him at Iowa event

Republican presidential candidates took aim at their rival Donald Trump on Sunday in the wake of a high-profile Iowa GOP event dominated by the former president and frontrunner in the race.

Candidate Nikki Haley spoke out on the new criminal charges facing Trump, who was accused last week of attempting to erase security camera footage at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida.

“None of that sounds good,” the former South Carolina governor said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The same way it didn’t sound good when Hillary [Clinton] erased her emails.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat. It doesn’t matter if you’re Hillary or if you’re Trump. You shouldn’t be erasing anything unless you have something to hide,’” said Haley, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump.

In a new superseding indictment, the Justice Department claims Trump, along with his property manager and a private aide, sought to try to delete surveillance footage in the classified documents case against him.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the original indictment accusing him of willfully retaining national defense information under the Espionage Act and trying to obstruct the government investigation.

Chris Christie, also a GOP presidential candidate, said federal prosecutors have built “a very, very compelling case” against Trump.

“This is bad stuff,” the former New Jersey governor said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This was the withholding of confidential classified information from the government. After 18 months of asking Donald Trump to return it voluntarily, not only did he not return it, he lied about having it.”

At the GOP’s annual Lincoln Dinner in Iowa where 13 candidates stumped on Friday, Trump spent his time “talking about his own problems,” Christie said.

“This is a guy who’s putting himself before the country,” Christie said.

Political observers said the Republicans on stage in Iowa tiptoed around Trump, who leads in many opinion polls, and in particular avoided talking about his legal woes, while the former president garnered the lion’s share of attention.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, who is not seeking the White House in this race, pointed out that Trump gave “the worst speech” at the Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines.

“He read from a binder. He didn’t look up. He didn’t smile,” Sununu said on ABC News’ “This Week. “He doesn’t have the energy, he doesn’t have the fast ball.”

On the other hand, he said candidates Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum looked good in Iowa.

“A lot of the other candidates are showing something,” said Sununu, an outspoken critic of Trump. “The fact that the majority of Republicans clearly don’t want him, that’s an opportunity.”

Ramaswamy, also on CNN’s “State of the Union,” declined to point a finger at Trump.

“The thing about me is, I’m not attacking any of my fellow candidates. I am not running against them. I am running for this country,” he said, reiterating his promise that if elected he would pardon Trump.

Republican Asa Hutchinson criticized fellow candidates like Ramaswamy and Haley who have said they would pardon Trump if they were elected.

“There should not be any discussion during a presidential campaign,” the former governor of Arkansas said. “You don’t put pardons out there to garner votes. That is premature.

“I think that anybody who promises pardons during the presidential campaign is not serving our system of justice well and it’s inappropriate,” he added in his appearance on “Face the Nation.”

Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the possibility of making a third-party run for the White House, Republican candidate Will Hurd said: “I’m going to take time and deliberate.

“I wouldn’t want something that would potentially lead to Donald Trump winning,” said the former Congressman from Texas.

Christie noted that by the date of the first scheduled Republican candidates’ debate on Aug. 23, “the front-runner will be out on bail in four different jurisdictions, Florida, Washington, Georgia, and New York.”

Along with the indictment in Florida, Trump faces felony charges in Manhattan stemming from what prosecutors say was a scheme to cover up a potential sex scandal ahead of the 2016 election, when his then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged tryst with Trump years earlier.

In Washington, investigators are looking at what role Trump may have played in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and indictments are expected imminently in Georgia accusing Trump and his associates of trying to interfere with the state’s voting results in the 2020 presidential election.