A veteran GOP strategist who last week negotiated with dozens of former Republican officials from previous GOP administrations to discuss a Conservative party tells Fox News that the discussion was just the first step.
The gathering of more than 120 former President Trump critics, first reported by Reuters, included more than 120 former officials who served in the governments of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, as well as Republican strategists and IDPs have appointed ambassadors, several sources who attended the meeting confirmed.
TOP TRUMP ADVISOR SS FORMER PRESIDENT WILL BE ‘ACTIVELY INVOLVED’ IN THE GOP
“This is just the beginning of the conversation. The aim is to discuss and explore all the options, all the possibilities to promote a principled, effective center-right movement,” a participant in the meeting asked to remain anonymous to speak freer, told Fox News.
The participant said that ‘various ideas’ are driven. Among them were proposals to present candidates in some races, but to support the center-right candidates in other contests.
“Different people have different perspectives if such a movement can grow up effectively again within the Republican Party or if something should happen outside the party,” the contestant said. “I think this time we are in a position to have the conversation and try to figure out what the next steps are, to put together a plan to move forward.”
The meeting comes amid a battle for the future of the GOP – whether Republicans will remain a populist party reformed and ruled by Trump for four years or whether they will return to their conservative roots.
While he was politically wounded by the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters seeking to disrupt the certification of Biden’s White House victory in Congress – at the urging of the then president – the latest poll shows to that Trump is still very popular among Republicans. The influence is reflected in Congress. The vast majority of House Republicans voted against prosecuting Trump, and most Senate Republicans voted to declare the former president’s trial unconstitutional.
Trump has repeatedly promised to play an influential role in the GOP going forward, which includes supporting primary challenges for Republicans who crossed him and are eligible for re-election next year. Trump is also flirting with a presidential run in 2024 to try to win back the White House.
Asked if the possibility of a breakaway Republican Party would benefit the Democrats just at the ballot box, the contestant said ‘some people are worried about it and some people see it as the only way forward. It can not even be about winning elections. It must first be about winning the argument. It’s about developing a movement that is rooted in principle, the belief that when you do that, people will get there. ‘
RNC CHAIR MCDANIEL PREACHER PARTY UNIT IN THE MIDDLE OF DIVISIONS
Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel announces party unity.
“I have a firm belief that we as a party must unite,” McDaniel, who was unanimously elected in January to a second term of two years chairing the National Party Committee, told Fox News Digital last month.
McDaniel warned that “if we continue to attack each other and concentrate on attacking fellow Republicans, and if we have differences of opinion within our party, we will lose sight of 2022. The only way we are going to win is if “We come together and recognize that our policies of tax cuts, deregulation, energy independence, judicial justice are policies that the American people want to hear about. They do not want to hear about infighting within the IDP.”
Jason Miller, a top adviser to Trump, told Reuters when asked about the meeting that “these losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden.”