Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a potential presidential candidate in 2024 who served as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas under President Ronald Reagan, and critic of former President Donald Trump, spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum on Nov. 30 on the future of his party.
As he stood on Wednesday in front of an audience of about 200 guests attending the museum’s Time for Choosing series, the two-term governor said he learned many lessons from Reagan that apply to today’s world.
“We have seen another election cycle pass in America and we all look forward to the peaceful transfer of power in the House of Representatives in January,” he said. Voters, he added, “rejected extreme candidates and voted for democracy and the future. Many Americans chose leaders who reflected the voters’ dislike for a process that has gone from dignified leadership to the worst kind of schoolyard antics.”
Governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Wednesday, Nov 30, 2022. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
He said that there was no national red wave, but “there was a red wave in states like Iowa and Arkansas where the GOP gained seats at both the federal, state and local level.”
Hutchinson said that “the voters did not reject Republican ideas. They rejected some candidates because they did not embrace Republican principles.”
Hutchinson endorsed Trump in the 2020 presidential election, but in recent months grew critical after Trump hosted rapper Kanye West and white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
A two-term Republican governor, Hutchinson, 71, condemned the former president’s decision to meet with Fuentes. The Department of Justice defined Fuentes as a “white supremacist” after he participated in the 2017 “United the Right” rally in Charlottesville, which left one counter-protester dead and 35 injured. But Trump, who recently announced his 2024 presidential bid, denied knowing who Fuentes was before his visit.
On Wednesday, Hutchinson spoke about his experience as a young attorney investigating and prosecuting extremists who committed acts of violence, including a case that involved a neo-Nazi group.
“I understood the risk to our democracy from those that undermined our principle of equality under the law,” he said. “I will never understand leadership that chooses to diminish or divide Americans, and I will never understand why a leader would give credibility to such hate-filled extremists by breaking bread with them.”
It’s not the first time Hutchinson has criticized Trump. He opposed his election fraud claims and urged him to take responsibility for the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Last year, he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he wouldn’t back Trump if the ex-president ran for the White House in 2024, adding “it’s time” to move on to different voices in the Republican Party. Hutchinson added that after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, he wanted Trump’s administration to end, but stopped short of calling for Trump to resign.
During his Wednesday speech, Hutchinson said he believed the U.S. core values in foreign policy, included protecting “our peace and freedoms” along with a larger responsibility “to do what is practical and realistic to support those who want basic freedoms across the globe.”
He added: “We must continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia. The people of Ukraine have the right to decide their own future, and we know all too well the designs of evil dictators like Vladimir Putin and their disdain for American ideals of freedom.”
When it comes to China, he said, “The Communist leadership must know our determination to not allow Taiwan to become another victim of China’s expansion.”
Hutchinson, preparing to leave office in January, also represented Arkansas in the 3rd Congressional District from 1997 to 2001. President George W. Bush appointed him director of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2001 and he later served as an undersecretary in the newly created Department of Homeland Security.
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In 2015, Hutchinson became the 46th governor of Arkansas. He was reelected in 2018 with 65% of the vote, receiving more votes than any other candidate in the history of the state.
Earlier this month, he urged lawmakers to boost public school funding by $550 million over the next two years to increase teacher pay. Hutchinson will be succeeded as governor by former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The school funding, he said, would allow “the next administration and the General Assembly maximum flexibility in terms of raising teacher salaries and raising the outcomes for education in the state.”
Previous speakers in the Time for Choosing series and other talks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum featured Congressman Mike Garcia, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Associated Press contributed to this report.