CLEVELAND — As former President Donald Trump prepared to surrender and face a judge at his arraignment in New York on Tuesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was asked for his thoughts on the situation during a one-on-one interview with 3News' Christi Paul at WKYC Studios in Cleveland.
Among his comments: "It's not a happy day."
“Well, we’re all watching this," Gov. DeWine said. "I’m a former county prosecuting attorney. Fran [his wife] says in my heart I’m still a prosecutor, I guess. I kind of look at it from that point of view. You’ve got a grand jury that obviously met. What we don’t know as you and I are talking right now, is what is actually in the indictment."
Paul then asked Gov. DeWine about the words he could give that might help everybody keep the peace amid these circumstances.
"You’re right. It’s very, very important," he replied. "We have to have respect for the law. I think we let the judicial process play out and we see and watch it. Nothing wrong with demonstrations. We’re a country that believes in our First Amendment. People have the right to demonstrate, they have the right to get mad, they have to the right to do a lot of things. What they don’t have the right to do is to cross that line and commit any kind of violence. That’s what we’re very, very focused on. We don’t want to see what we saw at the nation’s Capitol when the votes were actually being counted. We don’t ever want to see that again.”
So how is the state of Ohio preparing in light of what's happening?
“Well, we always watch these things," Gov. DeWine told Paul. "We have people in law enforcement who are very focused on this and not just this, but any time there could be possible disruptions. We’re not seeing evidence of that. We don’t expect it, and we certainly hope it does not occur.”
In closing on this topic, Paul asked Gov. DeWine what this situation could mean in the political spectrum.
“Yeah, we’ve never had anything like this before," he said. "That’s what makes it very, very different. Look, it is what it is. We’re going to have to see how this thing plays out. If you read the papers this morning or you listen to the news, there’s other investigations that are going on as well. Look, we’re a strong country. I keep telling people we’re a strong country. We’re a resilient country. We don’t want to see this happen. It is happening. We’ll get through it.”