By Tim Reid
(Reuters) – Dozens of Republicans in former President George W. Bush’s administration are leaving the party, shocked by the fact that many elected Republicans are not renouncing Donald Trump after his false claims about electoral fraud triggered a deadly storming of the Capitol last month.
These officials, some who served in the highest echelons of the Bush administration, said they had hoped a defeat of Trump would lead party leaders to leave the former president and denounce his baseless claims that the November presidential election were stolen.
But since most Republican lawmakers are holding on to Trump, these officials say they no longer recognize the party they served. Some have terminated their membership, others are dropping it while a few have only just registered as independents, according to a dozen former Bush officials speaking to Reuters.
“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I would call it the cult of Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, who was the undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence in the Bush administration.
Kristopher Purcell, who worked for six years in the Bush White House communications bureau, said that about 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave or cut ties with the party, based on conversations he is holding. “The number is growing every day,” said Purcell.
Their defection from the Republican Party after a lifetime of service to many is another clear sign of how a growing intraparty conflict over Trump and his legacy is breaking it.
The party is currently caught between disaffected moderate Republicans and independents who are disgusted by Trump’s hold on elected officials and Trump’s ardently loyal base. Without the enthusiastic support of both groups, opinion polls say that Republican officials and strategists will struggle to win national elections.
The Republican National Committee referred Reuters to a recent interview its chairman Ronna McDaniel gave to the Fox Business channel. ‘We have a bit of a fight now. But we come together. We have to, ”McDaniel said, predicting that the party will unite against the agenda of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Trump representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
A representative for former President Bush did not respond to a request for comment. During Trump’s presidency, Bush made it clear that he had “retired from politics.”
‘IT IS AWESOME’
More than half of the Republicans in Congress – eight senators and 139 delegates from the House – voted to block certification of the election just hours after the Capitol siege.
Most Republican senators have also indicated that they would not support Trump’s impeachment, making it almost certain that the former president will not be convicted in his Senate trial. Trump was impeached by the Democrat-led House of Representatives on Jan. 13 on charges of “inciting insurrection,” the only president to be impeached twice.
The reluctance of party leaders to disown Trump was the last straw for some former Republican officials.
“If it remains Trump’s party, many of us will not go back,” Rosario Marin, a former US treasurer under Bush, told Reuters. “Unless the Senate condemns him and rid ourselves of Trump’s cancer, many of us will not go back to vote for Republican leaders.”
Two former Bush officials who spoke with Reuters said they think it is important to stay in the party to get rid of Trump’s influence.
One of them, Suzy DeFrancis, a Republican Party veteran who, among other things, sat on the reigns of former Presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, said she voted for Biden in November, but that the breakup of the party is now only benefits the Democrats.
“I totally understand why people are frustrated and want to leave the party. I’ve had that feeling for 4 years,” said DeFrancis.
But she said it is critical that the party unite around Republican principles such as limited government, personal accountability, free enterprise and strong national defense.
However, Purcell said many felt they had no choice. He was referring to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman Republican congressman from Georgia who promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, who falsely claims that top Democrats belong to a secret ruling cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles. Another newly elected representative, Lauren Boebert from Colorado, has also made supportive statements about QAnon.
“We have QAnon members of Congress. It’s awful,” said Purcell.
(Reporting by Tim Reid; edited by Soyoung Kim and Grant McCool)