Do not hold your breath for Republicans who are angry with former President Trump
Donald TrumpBiden on Trump acquittal: ‘The case is not in dispute’ North Carolina GOP condemns Burr for accusation against Trump Toomey over Trump vote: ‘His betrayal of the Constitution’ requires more conviction break away to form a new party.
Interviews with more than half a dozen Republican strategists, agents and former officials conducted ahead of this weekend’s indictment show that there is a deep reluctance among even Trump’s most ardent critics to formally break away from the IDP .
Republicans were deeply divided over Saturday’s vote, with seven GOP senators finally voting to convict Trump. Thereafter Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnell Trump conviction simply agrees to GOP split Pelosi rules out verdict after Trump acquittal Raskin defends no agreement with witnesses: ‘I made the call’ MORE (R-Ky.) Downloaded the former president, saying Trump was morally responsible for inciting the January 6 uprising at the Capitol, while explaining that he had voted to resign because Trump was no longer in office is not.
McConnell’s remarks were the clearest sign yet that he wanted to send Trump’s party away, just as other Republicans say the former president should still be the leading voice in the party.
Sections within the IDP have been clear for years. But Republicans who spoke to The Hill expressed skepticism that they would lead to the formation of a third party, even after a meeting last week between dozens of high-conservatives who raised the possibility.
A number of these sources said that a third party would be just more than a spectacle and would threaten the Conservatives’ hopes of recapturing the House, Senate and White House in the future. And even those who are open to the idea acknowledge the challenges.
“I will be the first to say that our electoral system is stacked against third parties,” said Miles Taylor, Trump’s former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, who was among those who attended the meeting. “If that’s the way we decide to go, we’re very clear about the fact that there’s a third-party cemetery.”
The meeting last week brought together a group of more than 120 former Republican officials, agents and activists on Zoom to discuss the possibility of organizing a center-right party – or at least a new faction within the IDP – to to do with what they see as an increasingly extreme Republican Party.
More than 40 percent of fans supported the idea of a breakaway party, organizers said. A somewhat greater multiplicity favors a faction in the GOP, similar to the Tea Party movement that emerged in the party more than a decade ago.
The discussions continue, several people said, and they plan to hold more meetings in the coming weeks and months. Taylor, who anonymously wrote an essay in The New York Times and later wrote a book in which he criticized Trump and his government, does not rule out the idea of starting a third party and described the meeting last week as a “discussion of the temperature” among its participants.
“Even though many people in the Republican Party are still supporting Donald Trump, it is clear that the brand has received a huge repeat blow,” Taylor said. “We feel there is definitely an opportunity to take in people who felt dissatisfied by the end of 2020.”
The idea of a third-party movement has so far failed to gain a broad share of the Republican Party. Adam Kinzinger
Adam Daniel Kinzinger Kinzinger calls on people with information about Trump to bring forward NRCC’s financial chairman: Republicans who voted for Trump accusation will not be penalized. Gaetz strikes back at Kinzinger PAC, which is more focused on ‘Trumpism’ (R-Ill.), Who was one of ten Republicans in the House who voted to accuse Trump last month, told Reuters this week that he would not support such an effort.
Another Republican who supported the accusation, Rep. Liz Cheney
Elizabeth (Liz) Lynn Cheney Trump conviction votes to expose GOP separation The memorandum: GOP senators cast a decisive vote on Trump NRCC’s financial chairman: Republicans who voted for Trump accusation will no longer be penalized (Wyo.), Is also against “any attempt to divide the party”, her spokeswoman said in a statement.
One former GOP official has ‘theoretically’ expressed support for a breakaway party, but acknowledges that it is unlikely to materialize and says there are too many systemic barriers to making such an effort viable.
“When said and done, a two-party system is simply the history of this country,” the official said. ‘We like a system where parties have a wider tent. That is not to say that we cannot hope that the Republican Party will make changes in the next two, four, six years. ”
Chuck Clay, a former Georgia senator and chairman of the GOP, said the creation of a new party would only harm conservatives by breaking the voter base.
“The choice is really, okay, am I going to let the Democrats win?” he said. ‘Oh, save me. This is not going to happen. Or are we going to find a way to oust the Democrats in two years or four years? ‘
“People have a lot of legitimate concerns,” he added. “I just hope they do not turn it into unrest and bitterness and blame their home team.”
The rumble of a third-party movement is not just coming from those in the GOP’s center-right wing.
Trump apparently pushed the idea of founding a new “Patriot Party” last month as he prepared to leave the White House. But GOP leaders largely scrapped the idea and Trump’s campaign took steps to distance itself from a newly created “Patriot Party PAC.”
Yet the conversation of a third-party movement speaks to the divisions within the IDP that have worsened in the weeks since January 6, when a crowd of former president’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to certify Congress to disrupt. President Biden
Joe BidenBiden on Trump acquittal: ‘The case is not in dispute’ White House spokesman resigns after threatening political reporter Trump votes a conviction exposes GOP division MORE‘s Electoral College victory.
Trump’s role in inciting the riots was in the middle of the Senate indictment that ended Saturday.
House indictment managers resigned their case Thursday after making an emotional plea for senators to convict Trump of inciting violence against members of Congress.
Finally, the Senate on Saturday handed over its second acquittal to Trump. But the seven Republicans who joined their Democratic counterparts to convict him made it the most dual accusation in U.S. history. And McConnell, in his blasphemous remarks following the trial, suggested that Trump could face criminal prosecution for his role in the uprising.
The outcome of the trial indicates that divisions will continue to call for the party, as it looks before 2022 and beyond.
Evan McMullin, an independent Republican who presented with the Zoom call last week, said in a comment to The Hill before the vote that the reluctance of some GOP senators to hold Trump accountable ‘is just the latest indication that the Republican Party is rotten to the core. ”
McMullin, who introduced an independent bid for the White House in 2016, expressed concern that a center-right uprising in the GOP could damage conservative goals of regaining power in Washington. He said the current direction of the Republican Party leaves traditional conservatives and centrist voters with no other way out.
“There’s just no choice,” McMullin said. ‘People will say if you do that, you will split the Republican Party and the Republican Party will suffer politically. But the Republican Party does not represent us now. ”
Even with his acquittal, the riots in the Capitol probably took a political toll on Trump.
Some Republican senators believe the indictment has effectively thwarted the former president’s chances of a political return in the 2024 presidential race.
At the same time, some of those who once worked for Trump tried to distance themselves from him.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley
Nikki HaleyThe Hill’s 12:30 Report: Trump’s Advocates Begin Oral Arguments Hoping for a Recovery Nikki Haley breaks with Trump: ‘We should not have followed him’ The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by TikTok – Dems rests case; verdict on Trump this weekend MORE, who is seen as a prospective presidential candidate of 2024, issued an extraordinary reprimand from Trump in an interview with Politico published on Friday, saying that the former president had misled Republicans and that it was a mistake to follow him .
“We have to admit that he let us down,” Haley said. ‘He walked a path he should not have had, and we should not have followed him, and we should not have listened to him. And we can not allow that to ever happen again. ”
Yet there is little reason to believe that the former president and his brand of ultra-conservative populism will soon disappear.
Trump won a victory after his acquittal, saying his political movement had ‘just begun’.
“In the coming months, I have a lot to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey to achieve American greatness for all our people,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a CBS / YouGov poll released this week found that 73 percent of GOP voters believe it is at least “somewhat important” to remain loyal to Trump. Furthermore, about a third of Republicans said they would join a new political party if Trump formed one. Another 37 percent said they might join.
Trump allies have raised the possibility that a new center-right movement would form separately from the GOP or within the party itself, arguing that such an attempt is not in touch with the conservative footsteps.
“It’s going beyond a stupid fantasy,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist and staunch Trump supporter. “If the goal is to win back the party and the base, the base will destroy and the Democrats may not make their friends.”
“The grassroots level has an impact on the party and the grassroots level loves Trump.”