WASHINGTON – Republicans are battling over the future of their congressional leadership and their hierarchy, how aggressively the rise of right-wing extremism and the influence of former President Donald Trump must be confronted in their ranks.
Some conflicting disputes push Republicans into different camps and force their leaders to take their side, with a major concern for the party’s future.
“It’s not about one member. It’s about what we stand for and whether we want to be a serious party going forward,” Republican consultant Brendan Buck said.
One controversy concerns the first term, Rep. Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is facing increasing criticism for calling for violence against Democrats on social media and for advocating grotesque theories about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the mass shootings. at a high school in Florida in 2018.
The other is concentrating on Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third position in the Republican House, who defended Trump and voted last month to charge him.
On parallel tracks, calls for Greene’s suspension and expulsion of Cheney from the leadership have increased over the past few days and came to a head during a meeting of the Republican Conference on Wednesday night.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, told members he has no plans to remove Greene from her committees. Then the caucus voted 145-61 by secret ballot to keep Cheney in leadership, a skewed voice indicating that a private disillusionment with Trump was occurring in the caucus.
The clash over Greene, who has raised money over the controversy and refuses to publicly apologize, has put McCarthy in a predicament. And that is unlikely to go away, as the Democratic-led House plans to vote Thursday on a resolution to remove Greene from the Education and Labor Committee and the Budget Committee.
It’s not just Democrats who say Greene is a problem.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Issued an unusual statement on Monday condemning Greene for advocating “false lies and conspiracy theories,” which he said was a “cancer for the Republican Party and our country ‘. At the same time, McConnell praised Cheney, a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, as a strong leader in the party.
A former Republican leadership aide said McConnell’s comments were “informative for McCarthy” in terms of taking a clear stand.
“Instead, [McCarthy is] to blow the Republicans out of the House every day that it continues, ‘the former leadership said on condition of anonymity not to offend McCarthy.
McCarthy’s handling of the issue is being closely monitored in all corners of the party, and it will set a precedent for radical figures who may want to be elected – and it will weigh on voters who are torn or want to support Republican candidates again.
“The GOP of the House just looks at what’s good about winning a by-election, and McConnell is trying to win back a majority,” Buck said. “We cannot get back suburban voters trained at university without making it clear that it is not a party of conspiracy theorists and nuts.”
Greene claims he has the support of Trump. She has become the face of the party’s so-called QAnon faction, which includes a group of its supporters who promote online conspiracy theories that Trump faces a cabal of Democrats and celebrities dealing in child sex.
She claimed on Wednesday that she was being victimized because of her identity as, among others, white, Christian and conservative.
Dan Eberhart, a key Republican donor, said: “Republican leaders are following their voters, not the other way around, and the basis is not yet there to throw Trump overboard. The Republican Party is no longer run by the elite in Washington. “It’s run by state – level grassroots activists, and they do not listen to Washington. They listen to people like Representative Greene.”
McConnell told reporters on Tuesday he wanted to create distance between Greene and the rest of the party.
“I spoke out yesterday about the new member of the House. And I think I have spoken out sufficiently about how I feel about defining the Republican Party that way,” he said. “I think it covers my opinion on it pretty well.”
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McConnell associates say he saw fringe figures (such as Christine O’Donnell and Todd Akin) win the Republican Senate primary in 2010 and 2012 and then cost the party winning seats when they lost their general election. He does not want to allow it again.
In recent years, McConnell has also sounded the alarm about the party’s weakness in the suburbs, and associates say he considers it detrimental if the party is considered affiliated with QAnon.
A Morning Consult / Politico poll released Wednesday found Greene becoming a household name, with 46 percent of registered voters saying they had an opinion on her – a 21-point increase since August. And Democrats are increasingly working to paint the entire Republican Party with its brand of radicalism.
“Republicans have a choice: Are they going to stand with QAnon and a member in their midst who are fighting for violence and extremism, or are they going to accept truth, honesty, integrity and accountability?” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., Said on MSNBC on Wednesday. ‘The ball is in their court. And unfortunately, the House will have to act if they do not. ‘
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the party’s presidential candidate in 2012, said the GOP “is not big enough to have conservatives as well as culinary arts.” He said the party “should have nothing to do with Marjorie Taylor Greene” and that it “should reject the things she said and move away from her”.
But others who have stepped voters to the far right are stepping more cautiously, including Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., who said he wants her to explain herself.
“Are these postings accurate? I want to hear from her. Before I judge what I should do to her, I want to know what the facts are. If these are not accurate postings, they have been manipulated, I would like to know. ” Graham told reporters on Tuesday.
When Graham told me she was on the video and made some of the allegations, she said, “She will have to tell me, ‘Is this accurate? I do not know. I did not see the video, what is accurate, what is not.’ “