Gunny
02-13-2022, 01:38 PM
I knew it wasn't just me. Whatever Trump has to offer cannot offset the divisiveness he has created within the GOP.
By DAVID SIDERS (https://www.politico.com/staff/david-siders) and NATALIE ALLISON (https://www.politico.com/staff/natalie-allison)
02/05/2022 07:00 AM EST
(http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/facebook/offer?pco=tbx32nj-1.0&url=https://politi.co/34yda2b&pubid=politico.com)
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(https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/05/trump-midterms-republicans-salt-lake-00005867#)
(https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/05/trump-midterms-republicans-salt-lake-00005867#)
SALT LAKE CITY — Nine months before the midterm elections, nearly everything is falling the Republican Party’s way, from President Joe Biden’s dismal approval ratings (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/) to rising gas prices and a seemingly never-ending pandemic.
Yet as the Republican National Committee concluded its winter meeting here on Friday, it was censuring two of its own, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), and decrying the House’s Jan. 6 select committee for what Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, called the “persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”
In a year in which even many Democrats acknowledge the GOP will likely win the House (https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/18/democrats-2022-hurricane-525283) — and despite Republican lawmakers and strategists pleading with Republicans (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/02/02/republicans-cant-agree-on-a-scotus-strategy-00004536) to keep their focus on pocketbook issues and on Biden — the RNC is still recasting the events of Jan. 6 and chasing down enemies of the defeated former president, Donald Trump.
For all the energy he creates at the party’s grassroots, his stranglehold on the party is emerging as one of the biggest threats to the GOP’s otherwise bright prospects in November.
He has already singled out 10 House Republicans for extinction. He is attacking GOP governors and backing their primary challengers, while meddling in Senate races where it may lead to the nomination of flawed candidates who are ill-suited for a general election. He is fomenting a rebellion against the party’s Senate leader, Mitch McConnell. And this week, in Salt Lake City, it was David Bossie, the former Trump deputy campaign manager, who was leading the effort to kick Cheney and Kinzinger to the curb.
“Some of us who have been around for a while don’t think this makes any sense,” said Bill Palatucci, a Republican National Committee member from New Jersey. “We’ve got Biden in free fall, [Democrats] can’t get anything done in Washington, and for us to convene a circular firing squad, that make no sense to me.”
Mike DuHaime, a former Republican National Committee political director, called the censure “insane. (https://twitter.com/MikeDuHaime/status/1489596279751680002?s=20&t=I4_Ms7LrkglcYaAqP7nl3w)”
The censure was the product of several days of private negotiation in the hallways and meeting rooms of the Salt Lake City hotel where the RNC met. Initially, the resolution’s authors had proposed calling for the ouster of Cheney and Kinzinger — both of whom drew Trump’s ire for voting to impeach him — from the House Republican Conference. The language was later tempered to appease RNC members who feared it could prove politically taxing for the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and for McDaniel, who said in November that Cheney “obviously” is “still a Republican.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/05/trump-midterms-republicans-salt-lake-00005867
By DAVID SIDERS (https://www.politico.com/staff/david-siders) and NATALIE ALLISON (https://www.politico.com/staff/natalie-allison)
02/05/2022 07:00 AM EST
(http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/facebook/offer?pco=tbx32nj-1.0&url=https://politi.co/34yda2b&pubid=politico.com)
(http://api.addthis.com/oexchange/0.8/forward/twitter/offer?pco=tbx32nj-1.0&url=https://politi.co/34yda2b&text=Trump%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%98circular+firing+squa d%E2%80%99+threatens+GOP+midterm+gains&pubid=politico.com&via=politico)
(https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/05/trump-midterms-republicans-salt-lake-00005867#)
(https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/05/trump-midterms-republicans-salt-lake-00005867#)
SALT LAKE CITY — Nine months before the midterm elections, nearly everything is falling the Republican Party’s way, from President Joe Biden’s dismal approval ratings (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/) to rising gas prices and a seemingly never-ending pandemic.
Yet as the Republican National Committee concluded its winter meeting here on Friday, it was censuring two of its own, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), and decrying the House’s Jan. 6 select committee for what Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, called the “persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”
In a year in which even many Democrats acknowledge the GOP will likely win the House (https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/18/democrats-2022-hurricane-525283) — and despite Republican lawmakers and strategists pleading with Republicans (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/02/02/republicans-cant-agree-on-a-scotus-strategy-00004536) to keep their focus on pocketbook issues and on Biden — the RNC is still recasting the events of Jan. 6 and chasing down enemies of the defeated former president, Donald Trump.
For all the energy he creates at the party’s grassroots, his stranglehold on the party is emerging as one of the biggest threats to the GOP’s otherwise bright prospects in November.
He has already singled out 10 House Republicans for extinction. He is attacking GOP governors and backing their primary challengers, while meddling in Senate races where it may lead to the nomination of flawed candidates who are ill-suited for a general election. He is fomenting a rebellion against the party’s Senate leader, Mitch McConnell. And this week, in Salt Lake City, it was David Bossie, the former Trump deputy campaign manager, who was leading the effort to kick Cheney and Kinzinger to the curb.
“Some of us who have been around for a while don’t think this makes any sense,” said Bill Palatucci, a Republican National Committee member from New Jersey. “We’ve got Biden in free fall, [Democrats] can’t get anything done in Washington, and for us to convene a circular firing squad, that make no sense to me.”
Mike DuHaime, a former Republican National Committee political director, called the censure “insane. (https://twitter.com/MikeDuHaime/status/1489596279751680002?s=20&t=I4_Ms7LrkglcYaAqP7nl3w)”
The censure was the product of several days of private negotiation in the hallways and meeting rooms of the Salt Lake City hotel where the RNC met. Initially, the resolution’s authors had proposed calling for the ouster of Cheney and Kinzinger — both of whom drew Trump’s ire for voting to impeach him — from the House Republican Conference. The language was later tempered to appease RNC members who feared it could prove politically taxing for the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and for McDaniel, who said in November that Cheney “obviously” is “still a Republican.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/05/trump-midterms-republicans-salt-lake-00005867