The result is a Republican Party in a battle with itself over who will determine its way forward – and, more importantly, who should be kept from the levers of power in the IDP. At the moment, party unity is making room for accusations, a culmination of the years-long dispute between the party’s grassroots level and its leadership class that was mostly thwarted during Trump’s presidency, when few Republicans dared to cross it.
“Republicans are entering the wilderness and desperately wanting to blame,” said Erick Erickson, the conservative commentator and radio host. “They’ll have to make room for each other or let the Democrats run over them in the middle of time.”
Erickson says the divide in the party is not only philosophical, but literal, and both sides have their own problems within the IDP infrastructure.
“The establishment before Trump is currently managing the party’s policy-making arm, and the Trump wing controls the arms of the state parties,” he said. “It can not hold and the party can win.”
For Representative Adam Kinzinger, a six-term Illinois congressman and one of only ten Republicans in the House to vote for, the party is in the midst of a difficult battle over its own identity.
“I do think we’re in a fight,” Kinzinger told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Monday. “And it can be a struggle that really needs to happen for our party to say, what do we stand for? Not when it comes to policy, but as much as anything, are we aspiring or are we a party that feeds on fear? and division? ‘
Sanders climbs in, Portman climbs out
Two announcements on Monday reflect how much the party’s Trump wing remains in the GOP’s executive seat – and that members of the establishment in front of Trump are fading.
” A trusted confidant of the president, Sarah advised him on everything from press and communications strategy to staff and policy, ” reads the release. “For two and a half years, Sarah worked closely with the president, struggling with the media, working with lawmakers and CEOs and accompanying the president on every foreign trip, including dozens of meetings with foreign leaders.” Trump endorsed Sanders later Monday, saying in a statement that she is “a fighter who will always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct.” ”
Portman’s decision to leave a ‘safe seat’ tells you that he does not think much is going to improve in Washington, and that we are unlikely to take the majority in ’22, ‘a strategist close to Republican fundraisers told CNN.
“We need all the moderates we can get,” said a second GOP strategist familiar with Republican politics in Ohio. “He’s exactly the type we want, and now he’s going to be replaced by ‘more conservative’ by ideology or positioning.”
McConnell, Cheney’s setback
But ‘more conservative’ – or at least more committed to Trump – is exactly what those who are most loyal to the former president want.
Cheney, chair of the House Republican Conference, was among the Republicans of the House who voted for indictment earlier this month. For the vote, some of the toughest Trump allies in the GOP conference are threatening to deprive her of her leadership role. And one of them, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, is going to Cheney’s home state of Wyoming this week to cast her vote.
McConnell, meanwhile, only gestured about his openness to vote for conviction, but that was enough to increase the pressure from some Republican colleagues. And in two recent speeches on the Senate floor, Republican leader sharply criticized Trump’s actions around the attack and denounced the lie propagated by the president that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
All of this has made McConnell a target for votes in the conservative media.
“Mitch McConnell, if you are not going to fight, we deserve better,” Fox News host Sean Hannity said last week. “You can go back to represent the people of Kentucky and lead someone who knows how to lead.”
Many Republicans with potential White House ambitions therefore tread lightly.
Sens. Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, for example, did not object to counting election votes like their other ambitious colleagues Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley do not. But Trump remains popular with Republican voters, and most polls show little appetite for accusing Trump.
So Rubio and Cotton, along with other senators who are running for president, have already indicated they will not support Trump’s conviction – a possible hedge against primary voters that Trump could recognize as an asset in a presidential election. nominated.
Trump’s party in the states too
In some states, party committees and local activists have selected those who have not adequately defended Trump. Backed by Trump himself, Republicans in Georgia went after their own elected officials, including government Brian Kemp, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, for not trying to stop the election.
In a statement following the January 13 vote on the House indictment, the Republican Party in Texas declared the vote “light-hearted and cruel.” And last week, the Oregon Republican Party released a lengthy statement calling for the 10 GOP votes to accuse Trump of a ‘betrayal’.
Over the weekend, the Republican Party in Arizona, which has just elected its pro-Trump president Kelli Ward, passed resolutions welcoming three of the state’s most prominent Republicans: Cindy McCain, former Senator Jeff Flake, and Gov. Doug Ducey.
What happened in Arizona – a longtime Republican state that Trump lost and where the Democrats stand up – cares for longtime GOP agents like Michael Steel, a former top assistant to House Speaker John Boehner.
“When you tell the people of Arizona that your successful, conservative, two-term governor is somehow a problem, you condemn yourself to minority status,” Steel told CNN.
Erickson agrees.
” A party not big enough for Dick Cheney’s daughter, Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, John McCain’s wife, and the sitting governors of Arizona and Georgia, is a party that is not big enough to win , ‘he said.
Fredreka Schouten, Jim Acosta and Annie Grayer of CNN contributed to this report.