Asa Hutchinson calls it 'offensive' for GOP candidates to promise they'd pardon Trump

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Sunday called it "wrong" and "offensive" for fellow Republican presidential hopefuls like Vivek Ramaswamy to promise they'd pardon Donald Trump, placing himself as an outlier so far among conservatives in the 2024 field.

"It is simply wrong for a candidate to use the pardon power of the United States of the president in order to curry votes and in order to get an applause line," Hutchinson said on CNN's "State of the Union," reacting to an earlier appearance by Ramaswamy. "That really undermines the rule of law in our country that I have served my lifetime supporting, and it is offensive to me that anyone would be holding out a pardon under these circumstances."

Ramaswamy, who, like Hutchinson, is polling in the back of the pack of Republican candidates, had just said after reading the 49-page indictment: "I'm even more convinced that a pardon is the right answer here."

Trump is the first former president to face federal charges. According to the indictment, he is accused of willfully retaining sensitive government records after leaving the White House and seeking to prevent authorities from getting them back. He will be arraigned on Tuesday and has said he is innocent.

Businessman and presidential candidate Perry Johnson has also vowed to pardon Trump, if Trump is convicted and Johnson is elected. Others in the race, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence aren't making similar offers -- though they haven't publicly ruled them out either.

"I'm not going to speak to hypotheticals," Pence told reporters on Friday in New Hampshire, also calling it "premature" for Trump to drop out. "Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in America, and I think the former president has a right to make his defense. And we'll respect that right."

Hutchinson vehemently agreed on Sunday that Trump carries the presumption of innocence and has a right to make his case, but he called the indictment a "distraction" from the campaign -- and has repeatedly called on Trump to end his bid "for the good of the country," while acknowledging he won't.

Unlike the other voices in his party claiming special counsel Jack Smith's case is "weaponization" of law enforcement for political purposes, Hutchinson, also a former federal prosecutor, said the unsealed indictment shows the rule of law at work -- and if anything, anyone other than Trump would've been indicted a long time ago.

"My point is that this is bad for our country, bad for the presidency, and it is a legitimate campaign issue. We do not need to have our commander in chief of this country not protecting our nation's secrets," he said on CNN. "If these allegations and probable cause have been found against any military person, any public servant that wasn't named Donald Trump, they would have been indicted a long time ago."

"This is equal application of the law," he added.

Republican candidate Steve Laffey has joined with Hutchinson on the issue of a prospective pardon, telling ABC News on Friday, "Enough is enough."

"It's time for him [Trump] to leave the stage. And if guilty, he goes to jail for quite a period of time," Laffey said.

Hutchinson was the nation's youngest U.S. attorney in 1982 when he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve in the Western District of Arkansas at age 31. Three years later, he successfully prosecuted a far-right group with white supremacy ties called The Covenant, The Sword and The Arm of the Lord, and he often brings up in stump speeches on the road how he put on a flak jacket and negotiated the end of a standoff before trying the case.

On Sunday, he also swiped at information in the indictment indicating that Trump allegedly showed classified material to a member of his political action committee for, as Hutchinson put it, "entertainment value."

"We don't need a commander in chief that disregards the nation's secrets from our nuclear secrets to our military responses to particular worldwide events. These are things that should not be disclosed as entertainment value to a political contact that you're speaking with," he said.

Trump has been charged with 37 counts: 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information; one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; one count of withholding a document or record; one count of corruptly concealing a document or record; one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation; one count of scheme to conceal; and one count of false statements and representations.

The former president is scheduled appear before a judge in Miami after surrendering to the authorities.

While calling the indictment "very solid," Hutchinson also predicted on CNN that it will be "a challenging case for the government."

"Not because the facts are weak, but simply because you're going after a former president and you just have one juror that happens to be a Trump supporter or happens to be of a different viewpoint, you're not going to be able to get a conviction," he said.

ABC News' Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Isabella Murray and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.