Former President Donald Trump continues to rage at top Republicans who have criticized him, despite some advisers insisting that he should instead strive for President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sen. John Thune, the Republican no. 2 in the Senate, and longtime political operator Karl Rove is one of the targets of Trump’s anger, these people said.
These people did not want to be nominated to speak freely.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller responded to CNBC’s request to comment on this story by sending an email: “False news. We focus on winning back the House and Senate by 2022.”
CNBC has asked which Republicans Trump plans to target during the midterm elections, after the former president said he plans to support several primary candidates supporting his Make America Great Again agenda.
There are currently 20 Senate seats currently held by Republicans, including four non-eligible, which will be available in 2022. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is the only one of the seven Republicans who voted to condemn Trump in his second indictment. trial for next year re-election. The whole house is at stake too.
Trump’s anger against the Republicans who criticized him was most evident in his statement called Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader, R-Ky., Calling Trump a ‘fool, grumpy and impeccable political heel ‘.
Trump’s remarks come after McConnell, even after acquitting the former president in his second indictment, said he was responsible for the January 6 riot in Capitol Hill. Trump said in response that he plans to support primary contenders in the 2022 midterm elections that stand with him.
Advisors told Trump that many Republican voters, questioned by the former president’s strategists, did not want to see an overall war in the GOP. Instead, they would rather see Trump focus his attacks on Biden and top Democrats.
Sen. Rick Rick, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told staff he wants to persuade McConnell to enter into talks with Trump so the two can resolve their differences before the midterm period, according to one IDP adviser. Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., is reportedly planning to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort this weekend in an effort to play a peacemaker.
Chris Hartline, a NRSC spokesman, told CNBC that Scott “is not involved in mediating anything. He focuses on the future and wins back the Senate. He spends money every day to raise and collect money. talks about how important it is to save this country by stopping the Democrats ‘mad rush for socialism and loss of freedom and prosperity.’
“I do not know if he spoke to the Leader recently, but we are not talking about private conversations he had with other senators,” Hartline added.
Representatives of McConnell and Scott did not return requests for comment.
However, Trump’s allies are not backing down from the idea that support for his agenda will help Republicans in the primary election.
“If you know you have the muscle of President Trump behind you, and all the devoted loyal followers of the president, and even more importantly, his first policy in America, it will be hard to beat,” he said. Roy said. Bailey, a Texas businessman and former head of Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, told CNBC.
Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., An ardent defender of Trumps in Congress, tweeted that Republicans will be rejected by the party’s base if they do not accept the former president’s agenda. Gaetz asked that rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., The leader of the Republican House should be ousted after she voted to accuse Trump of inciting the deadly riot on Capitol Hill on January 6th.
Rove has emerged as a leading Republican critic of Trump, and the former president is not happy about that, one person said. Rove, a former senior adviser to former President George W. Bush, wrote a recent headline in the Wall Street Journal in which he defended his longtime ally McConnell and held the former president directly responsible for the Georgian Senate double downfall.
“Mr. Trump has lost the Georgia seats by not showing his campaign there about the need for control and balance on the incoming Biden government, but rather about his anger over the loss of the presidential election,” Rove wrote Wednesday. .
Trump is also angry with Thune, who will be re-elected next year, another person said. As for Thune, the South Dakota Republican voted with Trump more than 90% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight data. But he was also an outspoken Trump critic regarding the Capitol Hill uprising.
Trump warned in December that Thune was facing a primary challenge, after the senator said that the Senate’s efforts to challenge the results of the Electoral College would drop like a dog.
Nevertheless, Thune’s race was considered a ‘solid Republican’ in the Cook Political Report.
After Thune voted to acquit the president, he said: “What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our electoral system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable.”
Thune criticized Republican activists in a recent interview with the Associated Press. He said these activists were preoccupied with the “cancel culture” by rushing to condemn the GOP legislation that supports Trump’s accusation.
Thune, according to the AP, said he intends to help candidates “who do not talk about conspiracies and things like that.”
“At grassroots level, there are a lot of people who want to see Trump-like candidates,” he said. “But I think we’re going to look for candidates who are eligible.”