Republicans from Missouri and Kansas rushed to defend former President Donald Trump after he was federally indicted last night on allegations he mishandled classified documents and obstructed justice, deploying a familiar playbook to portray charges brought by an independent special prosecutor as political persecution. Shortly after Trump wrote Thursday that he’d been indicted on social media, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, appeared on Fox News to denounce the charges against the former president, casting the indictment through the political lens of the 2024 presidential election. “This is not about Donald Trump ultimately, this is about the United States of America,” Hawley told host Laura Ingraham. “This is about whether the constitution is still real in this country. This is about if any American can expect the due process of law.” The indictment, which was returned by a grand jury in Miami, has not been unsealed and the exact charges remain unclear. But Republicans qu...