Republican leaders struggle to unite a deeply broken GOP, fearing that if not done soon, it will unleash a battle between parties that could sabotage their chances of recapturing the House, Senate and presidency in the coming years .
Leader of minorities in the house Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy Teaching Former Official Rests Shaky Precedent Lou Dobbs Knocks ‘Little’ Republicans Criticizing Trump Marjorie Taylor Greene Praises Trump Amid Growing Backlash MORE (R-Calif.) Has urged members of his conference to stop attacking each other after the January 6 riots at the Capitol and former President Trump
Donald Trump Kelli Ward Rejects Request For Arizona GOP Race Audit Rifle Sales Rise Amid Pandemic Uncertainty, Biden’s Vow For Gun Reform Top Trump Impeachment Attorney Bowers Leaves Team: Reports MORE‘s accusation. He met Trump in Florida on Thursday as part of an effort to ease tensions within the GOP.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel
Ronna Romney McDanielLou Dobbs Knocks ‘Little’ Republicans Criticizing Trump GOP Chairman Urged Trump Not to Form a Third Party on Last Day in Office: Report The Hill’s Morning Report – Dems Question Trial; January will be MORE deadliest pandemic month also calls for an end to the feud, warning that emerging battles over ideological and political purity could jeopardize the party’s chances of regaining its majorities in the House and Senate by 2022.
“If we fight each other and attack each other every day and swing party purism, we will not achieve what we need to win back the House and take back the Senate, and that is my priority,” McDaniel, who previously became this one. month for a third term as a top officer of the national GOP, The Associated Press said in an interview.
The rift within the GOP, which has focused almost exclusively on Trump and his reelection for the past four years, became apparent earlier this month after a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as members of Congress gathered to confirm President Biden’s election victory.
That episode sparked a debate among many Republicans about the future of the GOP and whether it should look past Trump and his kind of conservative populism, which has led the party since 2016.
But Trump’s base of extremely loyal supporters remains a vital force in Republican politics. Many of the activists who have emerged on the political scene in recent years now have a massive influence on the party and have sought to punish or purge the Republicans they believe crossed the former president.
In states like Massachusetts and Arizona, GOP members have sought to formally punish top Republican figures for criticizing Trump or acting in ways inconsistent with the former president’s wishes. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey
Doug DuceySunday Show Preview: New COVID-19 Variants Distributed in US; Redditors shake up Wall Street with Gamestop stock of South Carolina GOP votes to get Rep. Rice to disapprove over impeachment vote Lawmakers go after governors to rein in COVID-19 powers MORE (R), for example, was censored by the state GOP for implementing emergency restrictions in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Meanwhile, Rep. Liz Cheney
Elizabeth (Liz) Lynn Cheney South Carolina GOP votes to replace Rep. Rice to be disapproved of over impeachment vote The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented by Facebook – Experts Respond to J&J Vaccine Data Where’s Barry Goldwater’s Republican Party When We Need It? LAKE (Wyo.), The chairman of the House Republican Conference and one of the 10 GOP members voting to impeach Trump, is being called by some in her party to remove her from her leadership post.
Another Republican legislator, Rep. Adam Kinzinger
Adam Daniel Kinzinger Sunday Show Preview: New COVID-19 Variants Distributed in US; Redditors Shake Wall Street With Gamestop Stocks The Memo: Center-right Republicans Fear Party Heading For Disaster GOP Has Increased Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Problem (R-Ill.), Acknowledged this week that his vote to oust the former president could prove to be ‘terminal’ to his political career, suggesting he could face a primary challenge next year.
“I’ll say to anyone who thinks my vote was for politics, they don’t know me,” Kinzinger said on an episode of the podcast “The Ax Files.” “And I would say now they don’t know politics because, you know, you have to get through a primaries.”
The censure, primary threats and allegations of disloyalty to Trump have upset party leaders and agents who fear arguing could undermine their chances of returning to power in the House and Senate next year.
“The party is actually the security team. So now we’re starting each race a bit behind because of the divisive rhetoric, the purge, the needless attacks on members of the party, ”said a GOP official. “So yeah, it’s pretty clear we need to get that under control.”
The current strategy, the agent said, is to keep tensions with Trump and his supporters from escalating, while at the same time avoiding further isolation of those hoping to move forward from the Trump years.
Minority leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell Lou Dobbs slaps ‘little’ Republicans criticizing Trump Biden rekindles immigration fight in Congress Louise Linton plays murderous, sex-obsessed hedge fund manager in her writer-director debut MORE (R-Ky.), Who publicly blamed Trump last week for provoking the riot in the Capitol, joined the vast majority of Senate Republicans on Tuesday to reject the House’s impeachment case against the former president.
Meanwhile, McCarthy’s meeting with Trump on Thursday can be seen as an attempt to get back into the former president’s good graces after a turbulent few weeks. Given the influence of Trump’s voter base in GOP politics, a failure to do so could be detrimental to House Republicans’ political outlook.
A statement released by Trump’s political action committee Thursday after the Florida meeting said the former president had agreed to help McCarthy reclaim the House majority by 2022.
Republicans only need a handful of seats to regain their majority in the lower house.
However, reclaiming the Senate may be more difficult for the GOP. Democrats currently have only the smallest majority in the upper chamber, but face a kinder card in the upcoming midterm elections. Republicans, on the other hand, have to defend 20 seats, including several in competing states.
Spearheading the GOP’s efforts to reclaim the upper room is Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Who became the new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) earlier this month.
Scott was one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate and one of the few senators to object this month to certifying the vote of the Pennsylvania electoral college after the January 6 riot. That vote made some Republicans uncomfortable about his role at the NRSC, given pledges from several major donors to suspend contributions from those who voted against the election results.
But despite his support of the former president, he announced last week that he would back incumbent senators over Trump’s beloved primary challengers, saying he intended to focus his efforts on defeating Democrats rather than on internal battles.
“Part of what I’m trying to do is everyone is going to focus on, you know, what’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats,” Scott said. “I think it will be clear with a lot of Biden stuff.”
In her interview with the AP this week, McDaniel also said that the national GOP would remain neutral in the 2024 presidential primaries, even if Trump decides to make one more bid for the White House, hinting at how the party would go. may try to appease the competition. factions in the future.
“The party must remain neutral. I’m not telling anyone to run or not by 2024, ”said McDaniel. ‘That is up to those candidates in the future. What I really want to see [Trump] however, help us regain majorities in 2022. “
It is quite a task to appease Trump loyalists as well as those willing to leave the former president. But the Republicans also recognized that it will not be the first time they will have to strike such a balance.
“There are always multiple factions, divisions in each party,” said Saul Anuzis, a Michigan-based Republican strategist and former chairman of the GOP state. “We have factions based on congressional districts, party politics, personalities.”
“We have to work on coalition politics,” he added. “We have to try to bring the party together. We cannot afford to override one faction. “