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GOP Rep. Ken Buck: Criminal Investigations Give Trump ‘Credibility’

The Colorado representative said he didn’t care about the crimes Trump was under investigation for as much as his record.

One will often not tout their pending criminal investigations on their resumes or, perhaps, even their dating profile. For one House Republican, that fact could make Donald Trump even more credible.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, where he was asked what he made of the ethical qualms Trump faced. Buck said last month that Trump faced “some ethical challenges” heading into the 2024 election, and Buck had said he would meet multiple 2024 candidates before he endorsed one.

“Would Republicans be better off with a candidate who is not facing multiple criminal investigations?” host Dana Bash asked.

Even with that prior acknowledgment, Buck seemed to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

“You know, it's interesting,” Buck said. “I think that the multiple investigations and civil lawsuits that have been brought almost give this presidential candidate and former president credibility. You keep saying that ‘the world is against him’ because he’s trying to make these changes.”

Bash tried to give Buck the chance to explain himself, acknowledging the investigations could aid Trump with a broad electorate. “But for you, Ken Buck, does he give ‘credibility’ to you?”

But even those investigations—which are looking into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, whether he mishandled presidential documents after he left office, and whether he violated the Espionage Act, among other acts—also don’t seem to matter much to Buck.

“I was in the House when he was president. I voted on his bills. I voted against his bills, sometimes his budgets and whatnot,” he said. “So I have seen him personally, I don't look at the actions that he has taken that are being investigated as much as his his role as a former president and what his policies were.”

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