DES MOINES, IOWA — Three candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination visited the Iowa State Fair on Tuesday, August 15th – Asa Hutchinson, Ryan Binkley and Tim Scott.

Along with sharing their messaging on the campaign trail and talking policy with the Governor Reynolds; candidates talked with reporters afterwards and shared their thoughts on the fourth indictment for former President Donald Trump.

“I heard the phone call and of course President Trump said that’s a perfect phone call, it wasn’t,” said Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. “I’m a former federal prosecutor and that’s election interference right there what was being said.”

Hutchinson added that he doesn’t believe the charges are strong against the former president, and he believes the charges should be handled at the federal level. Hutchinson, who hasn’t gotten the donors to qualify for the first debate yet, said that he doesn’t want to see Trump on the stage as he will pull the focus away from talking policy.

Another candidate only had one comment to say about the former president’s recent indictment, indicating that the justice systems in the country need to change.

“I will just continue to say it as I see it, which is that we see the legal system being weaponized against political opponents. That is un-American and unacceptable. At the end of the day, we need a better system than that,” said U.S. Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina.

The first GOP primary debate takes place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin next Wednesday, with Trump not committing on if he will attend or not.