Senator John Thune, a top ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said those aiming to punish senators who convicted former President Donald Trump during his indictment are “canceling culture.”
“A strong case has been filed,” Thune told the Associated Press about the home managers’ arguments. “People can come to different conclusions. If we are going to criticize the media and leftists about the cancellation of culture, we can not do it ourselves.”
The statement from Thune, RS.D., the Senate minority whip, is one of the most striking remarks about the internal rift in the Senate’s GOP since Trump earlier released a scathing and highly personal statement with McConnell, R-Ky. ., Earlier. this week. The former president called McConnell “a sloppy, grumpy and shameless political heel” and said “if Republican Senators stay with him, they will not win again. McConnell did not respond.
Thune’s interview also comes when state and local Republican parties across the country took action against their senators who voted to convict Trump.
Sen. John Thune, RS.D., speaks during a hybrid hearing of the Senate Transport subcommittee on the transport of a coronavirus vaccine on Capitol Hill, Thursday, December 10, 2020, in Washington. (Samuel Corum / The New York Times via AP, Pool)
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The North Carolina Republican Party has condemned Senator Richard Burr, RN.C., who was one of the senators who voted for conviction.
“The NCGOP agrees with the strong majority of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate that the Democrat-led attempt to accuse a former president is outside the United States Constitution,” the state party said Monday night in a statement. statement said.
Meanwhile, Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Is also experienced in his home state. And local parties have already drawn against the senator. The Westmoreland County GOP condemned Toomey according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, while the Republican Party of Washington County did the same, according to KDKA.
“We did not send him there to voice his conscience. We did not send him there to do the right thing or whatever he said,” Dave Ball, chairman of the GOP in Washington, told KDKA . “We sent him there to represent us.”
The senators who voted to convict Trump upheld their actions, and Burr addressed the censorship directly in a statement.
Senator Richard Burr, RN.C., walks into the Capitol as the Senate continues in a rare weekend session for final arguments in the second indictment of former President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, February 13, 2021. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
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“This is truly a sad day for North Carolina Republicans,” Burr said. “My party’s leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over the core principles of the Republican Party and the founders of our great nation.”
Trump also said in his long statement this week, “[w]here necessary and appropriate, I will support primary competitors who make America great again and put our policies of America first. ‘
Thune Thursday pushed back, warning that if Republicans run many candidates with the former president, they could end up sacrificing winning seats. Many Republicans are still upset after candidates backed by the Tea Party won elections during former President Barack Obama’s first term, only to lose what some say they otherwise won in the general election.
“At grassroots level, there are a lot of people who want to see Trump-like candidates,” Thune said. “But I think we’re going to look for candidates who are eligible.”
Thune added that he would help GOP candidates “who do not talk about conspiracies and things like that.” He also praised Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Who voted to accuse Trump in the House, and angered the GOP pro-Trump wing and promises of a difficult 2022 primary.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Speaks to reporters after casting his vote in the 2020 general election at the Kentucky Exhibition Center in Louisville, Ky., Thursday, October 15, 2020. (AP Photo / Timothy D. Easley)
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If Trump accepts his promise to run for re-election to Republicans who were insufficiently loyal to him, Thune will likely be one of the first on the list. Trump publicly suggested last year that Kristi Noem, a South Dakota government professor, would run in the by-elections against Thune, but she refused. Trump also called Thune ‘Mitch’s boy’ and ‘RINO’.
A source close to the former president told Fox News that his biting statement against McConnell was inspired earlier this week by a remark by McConnell in the Wall Street Journal. In it, McConnell said that the votes of the Republicans of the Senate – including votes by him and Thune – to acquit Trump of the charge of inciting an insurrection, were not a reflection of the merits of the matter, but of the fact that the Senate did not have it. jurisdiction now that Trump is a private citizen.
“January 6 was a scandalous day. A crowd blew law enforcement and besieged the first branch of government. U.S. citizens tried to use terrorism to stop a democratic process they did not like,” McConnell said.
“There is no doubt that former President Trump bears moral responsibility. His supporters stormed the Capitol because of the unintentional lies he shouted in the world’s biggest megaphone,” he added. “His behavior during and after the chaos was also unscrupulous, from the attack on Vice President Mike Pence during the riot to the praise of the criminals after it ended.”
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Thune repeated the comments to the Associated Press. He said Trump’s actions after the presidential election, including months of falsely claiming he won before bringing a crowd of his supporters to DC and telling them to go to the Capitol, were ‘inexcusable’. Thune added that Trump is undermining a peaceful transfer of power.
US President Donald Trump speaks to supporters of The Ellipse near the White House in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.
((Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images))
The bad feelings within the GOP of the Senate – with McConnell blaming Trump for the party losing the majority and Trump blaming McConnell for it – are causing concern among some of its members. Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., said, “I do not want to eat our own” and said:[w]e should turn it off “in an appearance on” Hannity “earlier this week.
And Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., Who is the new chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) and who is accused of running the party’s election efforts in 2022, is, according to a source, seeking unity in the party.
“President Scott’s goal is to win back the Senate, and the only way we can do that is for everyone to work together,” a source with knowledge of the senator’s thinking told Fox News. “And that includes both leaders McConnell and Trump. That’s where Scott’s focus is.”
Scott told Fox News last month that the NRSC was “clearly going to support the incumbents” and the NRSC confirmed earlier this week that Scott’s attitude had not changed.
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This could put the NRSC in an awkward position in races that Trump is pushing to spend resources on by-elections and, in essence, against the former president, who is still widely admired by the IDP base.
Scott will also deal with potentially unwilling donors before 2022, as The Hill reported Thursday that some GOP strategists and megadonors say high-dollar donations may sit on the sidelines “until Republicans get their way.”
Scott will currently speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, next week, where the GOP will spend four days working out what his future looks like in a post-Trump world. Scott’s comments are likely to be closely watched as he takes on the role of mediator in a budding GOP civil war.
Fox Stein’s Paul Steinhauser, Evie Fordham and Associated Press contributed to this report.