Former Republican House Rep. Charlie Dent confirmed to CNN that he and about 120 Republicans held talks last Friday on whether to form a new party or a new faction within the Republican Party that will operate independently of the IDP.
“Clearly, there are a number of Republicans like me and other Republican leaders who want a clean break from President Trump, and we are pursuing some core principles such as truth and honesty, and democracy, and the rule of law. “The former Pennsylvania congressman, who is a CNN contributor, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday.
The remarkable move would be an example of how broken the Republican Party is, but Trump still has a high rate of approval among Republican voters and the two-party system has dominated the American political system for centuries.
Despite the complicated submission by House of Representatives executives during Trump’s Senate sentencing hearing this week, Republican senators have indicated they will vote to acquit Trump, arguing that Democrats did not make a strong case that the words of Trump did not lead to the violent action in January and that the trial is unconstitutional as Trump is a former president.
Dent told CNN on Thursday that Trump is likely to be acquitted and that he “will not be held accountable,” and he will then try to convict the Republican Senate voters who condemn him and the ten members of the GOP. house who voted to accuse him.
“This is what I am most afraid of right now, that Trump will feel justified. He will feel acquitted,” Dent said, adding that he thinks Trump will try to hold those who voted against him accountable in his own perversion. keep. manner. “
Dent told CNN that Republicans like him believe it’s important to get the GOP representatives, Liz Cheney from Wyoming, Adam Kinzinger from Illinois and Fred Upton from Michigan, and the GOP senator Mitt Romney from Utah, “who stand up For the truth, out of principle and wants to make a clean break and wants this party to be different. ‘
“What we want is that we do not want to cling to the past, and not cling to a man who is being dishonored, in any way, in form or form. We do not want to follow the man who is nothing but defeat and brought no misery. and rebellion, “Dent said.” Let’s go forward, not backward. “
Anthony Scaramucci, who spent a very short time under Trump as communications director in the White House, also confirmed that he was also part of talks with other former Republican officials to form a ‘center-right party’.
‘I think what’s happened over the last three or four days has strengthened a very large group of people’ who believe that if the Republicans of the Senate do not convince Trump that the ‘party is going to split into two pieces’ so that it’ dilutes and completely weakened, ”Scaramucci told CNN’s Cuomo.
Scaramucci predicted that Trump would be acquitted in his Senate hearing and that 5-20% of the IDP would break down and start a new party.
“It will be a center-right party that will work with the Democrats and it will correct the nonsense of the far-right,” Scaramucci said.
Evan McMullin, a former GOP assistant to the House and current executive director of Stand Up Republic, confirmed to CNN that he had arranged the virtual meeting, arguing that “something new is needed, whether it is in the Republican Party” or beyond. ‘
“The current direction of the party is devastating, both for its own interests but most importantly, for the interests of the country,” he told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday, adding: “As extreme as some members of Congress are doing. ‘is from the Republican side, there is also an opportunity for renewal and rebirth, as the party is dealing with the related issues, and that’s what we’ve been talking about.’
He said that if a new faction were formed, they would nominate their own Republican candidates and in some cases even support Democratic candidates for election.
McMullin, who elected him independent as president in 2016, acknowledged that the Republican Party is still largely under Trump’s control.
“What we are talking about is a new direction for the party, and we are trying to unite people who are committed to our fundamental values, to democracy and to those who want it, regardless of who they have supported in the past, and the fact that we growing numbers is the most exciting thing about it, ‘he said.