Republicans are weary of Donald Trump’s calls for protests amid the belief by the former president that he’ll be arrested this week in connection with a years-old hush-money payment to a porn star.
Mr. Trump has called on his supporters to protest and “take our nation back!” prompting warnings of caution Sunday from prominent conservatives who say they do not want a repeat similar to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“If someone’s calling for protests, you always want to make sure that they’re peaceful. We don’t want history to repeat itself in an overly negative way,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It is going to be a bit of a political circus.”
Former Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn said he is “anti-protest.”
“I’m anti-protest, so I don’t think we should be protesting anything,” he said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”
“I hope that America has learned from what has happened in the past and I hope whatever happens next week, we just have a very peaceful set of events,” he said.
New York City is bracing for potential outcry over the Manhattan district attorney’s probe into whether Mr. Trump may have run afoul of finance laws in paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet before the 2016 election about a reported extramarital affair.
The ex-president has said he expects to be indicted, but it is not clear what made him come to the conclusion.
Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, remains tight-lipped other than to say he will “not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said the episode represents a political “circus.”
“The circus continues. He only profits and does well in chaos and turmoil. So he wants to create the chaos and turmoil on his terms. He doesn’t want anybody else’s terms … he wants it on his terms,” Mr. Christie, a Republican, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “But look at the end. Being indicted never helps anybody.”
Anthony Cole, a former Department of Justice official, called Mr. Trump’s remarks during an appearance on MSNBC an attempt to “intimidate local prosecutors” and “poison” the jury pool.
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