Just two weeks ago, Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy found Donald Trump guilty in the deadly assault on the Capitol. On Thursday he sought his political support.
A private meeting between the two men at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort marked a remarkable change in the former president’s prestige among elected Republicans. In the immediate aftermath of the uprising, Trump inspired, the idea that he would play a role as kingmaker during his post-presidency seemed highly unlikely.
But after an initial wave of condemnation, Republicans seem to be warming Trump, fully aware that his supporters are ready to punish anyone who shows disloyalty. With that in mind, party leaders are working to keep Trump in the fold as they aim to retake the House and Senate in 2022.
“United and ready to win in ’22,” McCarthy tweeted after meeting. Both he and Trump have issued statements outlining their pledge to work together to help Republicans regain control of the House and Senate by 2022.
The reshuffle with Trump is because those who crossed him continue to feel the burn. Trump ally Matt Gaetz, R-Florida, spent the day in Wyoming taking down Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, who voted to oust Trump. Amid the backlash, Senate Republicans have largely made it clear this week that they have no intention of condemning Trump.
As Trump tries to influence, he has undeniably fallen into disrepair.
Before inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol, Trump was expected to happily spend his post-presidency settling scores against Republicans rivals, launching a Twitter-driven destruction of his successor, and thinking about running again. for a second term. Now he is largely isolated and silenced by social media platforms as President Joe Biden tries to dismantle his executive order..
He has not been seen in public since he disappeared behind the manicured hedges at Mar-a-Lago last Wednesday, half an hour before the end of his presidency. He has spent his days consulting assistants and defense attorneys as he prepared for his historic second impeachment trial.
Things are very different now. Last time, Trump had an army of defenders, including a team of Washington attorneys, a presidential communications shop, a taxpayer-funded White House bureau, and the steadfast support of top Republicans, including the Republican National Committee.
This time, Trump is still struggling to assemble a legal team, with the lawsuit coming in two weeks.
“I think he has a significant disadvantage,” said criminal defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who was part of Trump’s legal team in 2020 but is on the long list of attorneys serving this case.
But even the impeachment trial, once seen as an opportunity for Senate Republicans to rid Trump of the party by preventing him from ever running again, is now being used as a rallying cry to reunite the party against the Democrats. Rather than argue whether he is guilty of “willfully inciting violence against the United States government,” Republicans have instead attacked the trial, arguing that it is unconstitutional to try a president who defends the White. Home has already left.
“At a time when our country needs to come together, Democrats in Congress are reiterating the same strategy they have been pursuing for the past four years: politically motivated reach that will only divide us further,” said Republican National Commission Chairman Ronna McDaniel. in a statement. That came after heated internal divisions over whether the group should publicly criticize Trump for instigating the riot.
In an interview, McDaniel declined to criticize the five Republican senators who voted this week to move forward with the trial. But she said, “It’s more important to look at the 45 who said this is ridiculous.”
Aside from the trial, Trump has gradually begun to return to the public conversation and fire press releases from the political committee he set up before leaving the White House.
‘He’s decompressing. He’s got a legal team he’s trying to organize, and he just has to keep doing what he’s doing, ” said South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Congress who helped Trump create a legal team after countless firms had been kicked out. .
“I think there is an adjustment,” said Matt Schlapp, president of the American Conservative Union and another Trump ally.
Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump, insisted it was “too early” to discuss the president’s impeachment strategy and the post-presidential political operation expected to be former White House political director Brian Jack and former campaign manager. Trump, Bill Stepien, will include.
“We’ve had discussions about where we want to be active in relation to the 2022 midterms and how we are helping Republicans win back the Senate and the House,” Miller said, but Trump has yet to decide whether he will get involved in primary races. to challenge Republicans who voted to impeach him.
After those members faced fierce backlash from Trump supporters, Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday in favor of an attempt to overturn his second impeachment trial.
“I think it’s pretty clear that Republican voters are adamant against impeachment and Republicans who vote for impeachment do so at their own risk,” Miller said.
Despite the uproar at the Capitol, polls show that Trump is still very popular among Republican voters – many of whom now consider themselves more closely associated with him than with the party.
“They’re not really trying to hug Trump. It’s the base of Trump they are trying to embrace, ”said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist. I think Trump’s departure has left a huge vacuum. He was the one thing that united Republicans more than anything. I mean, the Republican Party became the Trump Party for four years. And without him leading it, there is a distinct power vacuum, and I think you see that playing in Congress right now. “
The question is whether Trump’s influence will continue. The internal divisions fueling his team could ultimately undermine the party’s quest to retake Congress. And it is unclear whether he can transfer his personal popularity to other candidates if he is not on the ballot. Republicans lost control of the House in 2018 and gave up the Senate this month despite a last-minute appeal from Trump.
Graham, who declared just this month that he’s done with Trump – ‘All I can say is I’m not there. Enough is enough. ”- has since stressed the importance of keeping the party together.
“I want to make sure the Republican Party can grow and come back, and we will need Trump and Trump needs us,” he told reporters.
As for the Republicans voting to condemn Trump, “I think it depends on what state you are in and what stage of your career you are in,” he joked.
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The Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report.