NEW YORK (AP) – The Republican Party still belongs to Donald Trump.
After he sparked a deadly riot in the Capitol last month, the GOP considered purging the norm-shattering former president. But in the end, only seven of the 50 Senate Republicans voted to condemn Trump in his historic second impeachment trial on Saturday.
For Trump’s loyalists, the acquittal provides some kind of justification and a new connection to the former president’s fiery base. And to Trump’s GOP antagonists, it is another alarming sign that the party is swinging further in a dangerous direction with little desire to reconnect with the moderates, women and educated voters that Trump has alienated.
Ultimately, the impeachment trial’s resolution clearly brings a relief to the GOP that party leaders, donors and voters will have to navigate as they attempt to regain control of Congress next year and aim to retake the White House by 2024.
That tension could be seen in the immediate aftermath of the vote. After backing Trump’s acquittal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Made a speech that reflected some of the points the Democratic impeachment executives emphasized in seeking Trump’s conviction.
The former president, McConnell said, was “practically and morally responsible for triggering the events” that led to the uprising. But he argued there were no constitutional grounds for the Senate to condemn Trump now that he is no longer in office, a procedural point embraced by many in the GOP.
The history books will show that 10 members of the party’s president in the House and seven more in the Senate ultimately believed Trump’s behavior was blatant enough to warrant conviction – and even a life-long ban on holding future office. . Never before have so many members of a president’s party voted for his impeachment.
But through most objective measures, Trump’s grip on the GOP and its future remains airtight.
Gallup reported last month that Trump’s approval rate among self-described Republicans was 82%. And more recently, Monmouth University found that 72% of Republicans continue to believe Trump’s false claims that President Joe Biden won the November election solely because of widespread voter fraud.
Lest there be any doubts about Trump’s strength, House Republicans overwhelmingly voted last week for a diehard Trump loyalist, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. media.
Just days after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blamed Trump responsible for the violent attack, McCarthy turned himself around and made a personal visit to Trump’s Florida estate to ensure there was no ongoing hostility.
Of the seven Republicans who voted on Saturday to condemn Trump, only one will be re-elected in the next four years. Indeed, very few in Trump’s Republican Party want to cross him if they nurture future political ambitions.
One of them, 2024 prospect Nikki Haley, who was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, drew attention this week after telling Politico that Trump’s role in the January 6 attack essentially disqualified him from to re-apply.
“He’s fallen so far,” Haley said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have followed, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can never let that happen again. “
Another Republican presidential prospect, Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Voted Saturday to condemn Trump, stating that Trump’s “lies” about widespread voter fraud “endangered the vice president’s life” and “bring us dangerously close to a bloody constitutional crisis.”
While Sasse can run for president in 2024, he won’t have to deal with Republican voters in Nebraska again unless he chooses to run for re-election in 2026.
Likewise, Louisiana GOP Senator Bill Cassidy faced censure from his state party after voting to condemn Trump. But he won’t face voters again until 2026, so he’s relatively isolated from political fallout.
Despite McConnell’s criticisms, Trump’s most outspoken Republican opponents right now are likely to be a collection of retired Republicans on cable news and a “Never Trump” movement grappling with its own existential challenges.
The Lincoln Project, arguably the most prominent and best-funded anti-Trump Republican group, comes off a tumultuous week following revelations that its leaders were aware of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against a co-founder several months before publicly acknowledging them.
The organization’s self-proclaimed “senior leader”, veteran Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, resigned of the board on the eve of the Senate impeachment vote, a day after the Lincoln Project announced plans to hire an outside investigator.
The fallout threatens to undermine the organization’s appeal and leverage in fundraising, even as the super PAC works to expand its reach through a popular podcast and growing streaming video channel more than 4 million times last month alone. was viewed.
Co-founder Reed Galen recognized even before the crisis that Trumpism was winning.
“The authoritarian side of the Republican Party is the dominant side,” he said. ‘They have the momentum. For now they have the money. “
Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who leads the anti-Trump group known as Defending Democracy Together, said that “what the past two months have shown is that if Donald Trump was cancer in the country and the party, he’s metastatic. . ”
“I thought we could push him past,” she said. “But now I don’t think so.”
Still, the Republican Party faces enormous political risks if its leaders continue to embrace Trump and his brand of norm-defeating politics.
Dozens of Republican-friendly companies have already vowed to stop giving money to Trump’s allies in Congress, cutting off a critical revenue stream, just as Republicans hope to reclaim majorities in the House and Senate in next midterm elections. year.
Trump’s critics on both sides pledge to make sure that business and voters don’t forget what the former president and his allies have done.
“We will remind voters that the Republicans were willing to neglect their oath of office out of loyalty to one man, and that one man was more important than their voters, more important than the United States Constitution, more important than the democracy we have in this great nation, ”said Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Commission.
But Trump himself is not going away. Immediately after his acquittal, he made a written statement promising to reappear “soon”.
“Our historic, patriotic, and beautiful movement to make America great again has only just begun,” Trump said. “In the coming months I have a lot to share with you, and look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people.”