Following Trump’s call for McConnell’s Republicans to move on, POLITICO on Wednesday reached out to all 16 Republican senators who voted for re-election in 2022 to ask if they support the Kentuckian as a majority leader. Only two answered.
“Leader McConnell has my full support and confidence,” said Senator John Thune (RS.D.), the Republican of Senate no. 2 which drew Trump’s anger and a primary threat after condemning the then president’s refusal to accept the election results. in a statement to POLITICO. “No one understands the Senate better than he does.”
Other Republicans, meanwhile, spent Wednesday resolving the conflict that fueled Trump the previous day, but did not criticize the former president, but rather emphasized his role in the IDP.
“If we end up in a personality wrestling match and fight, we will be in a challenging place in 2022 and 2024 – which means America will accept socialism because we can not get it right,” Sen. Tim Scott (RS.C.), the other Republican in 2022 to support McConnell as leader, said on Fox News on Wednesday, adding that Trump “is the most powerful political figure on either side.”
While no GOP senators reflect Trump’s attacks on McConnell, some at least implicitly take Trump’s side.
“If you look at the polls, if you look at Republicans who voted for Trump, they would rather have Mitch McConnell or Donald Trump’s head of the party – it’s not even a match,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis) said. ) said Conservative radio presenter Joe Pagliarulo this week.
McConnell, who voted to acquit Trump in the indictment but scolded his behavior around the uprising, has already threatened to run in the GOP by-election for candidates he believes cannot win a general election. to repel. In response, Trump, who carried out on Twitter, issued a lengthy statement Tuesday in which he bases McConnell, claiming that the Republicans who stick with him must be willing to lose.
This is not an unknown position for elected Republicans, who for the past four years have had to deal with Trump’s diatribes against their colleagues and competing interests within the party – including spending the two months before the end of Georgia and falsely claiming the election in November was stolen from him. Since Trump is out of the White House and no longer trying to advance legislation through a McConnell-controlled Senate, it remains an open question whether the GOP can suppress the fighting this time around – or whether Trump even wants to.
McConnell and Trump have had bitter disputes in the past, including after the party’s failure to recall Obamacare and during the controversial special election in Alabama. These discussions resolved very well before the mid-term of 2018, but McConnell made it clear in an interview with POLITICO last week that he will support candidates regardless of whether they are supported by Trump.
“The only thing I care about is eligibility,” he said.
Josh Holmes, a leading McConnell adviser, stressed that the senator’s ‘guiding principle’ is to support candidates who can win. He said there could be a “major overlap” between candidates who support Trump and candidates who are supported by the Senate’s GOP infrastructure.
“Because Trump makes an endorsement, or if he makes an endorsement, it means nothing to us,” Holmes said. “We could very well endorse the same candidate or do nothing.”
The Trump-McConnell splash has already failed after 2022 races. Former Rep. Mark Walker, who was the first Republican to run in the North Carolina Senate race, said he disagreed with the resignation. GOP Senator Richard Burr’s vote to condemn Trump and calls McConnell’s speech to criticize Trump ‘unnecessary’.
“I think whether he likes it or not, former President Trump for 2022 will at least have an impact on at least Senate games – maybe even House races,” Walker said in an interview.
But Walker said he would be proud of Trump and McConnell’s support for his campaign, although he insisted it was too early to say whether he would support McConnell as GOP leader.
“My trademark for six years is to be a conservative champion and bridge builder,” he said. ‘I think at certain times in DC people think you have to sacrifice one or the other. But you do not. ‘
But Trump is making it harder for candidates to cross the line. Earlier Wednesday, while paying tribute to the late Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Fox News Channel, Trump reiterated the false claim that he won the election and again chased the Republicans because he did not support him.
Democrats who want to expand their incredibly narrow majority of the Senate in 2022 think they can benefit from the push-and-pull between Trump and McConnell, which they say divides the party into key battlefields where control of the chamber will be decided.
‘It’s unfortunate that it came here to promote a progressive agenda. But I think the Democrats should strike while the iron is hot, “said Tom Nelson, a Democrat who voted for Johnson’s Wisconsin seat.
Only after McConnell published a Wall Street Journal publication this week in which he teased Trump did the former president decide to strike back at the GOP leader of the Senate. Trump was not happy with McConnell’s weekend reprimand of Trump on the Senate floor, but he saw the open as a bridge too far, according to a person with knowledge of his reaction.
Some Trump advisers have been critical of the former president’s broad side, saying he should be more surgical in the way he acts in the by-elections against incumbents. According to people who spoke to him, he has so far been largely focused on the Republicans of the House who supported his accusation, including Representatives Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) And Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).
But people close to the former president say it was McConnell who made the bigger mistake of tackling the fight, even voting for acquittal. McConnell put the Republicans in a box, forcing them to choose between Trump – who maintains an ironic grip on the party’s base – and McConnell.
So far, Republicans who are facing re-election in 2022 say they claim Trump’s threats will be a wash – and that, with months left until election season in full swing, it is impossible to know whether Trump inspired primaries will realize. The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Who opposed the certification of the election results in Pennsylvania, was reluctant to criticize the former president, betting that his support would be needed to get the party back on track. majority. .
But the Senate card suggests Republicans may experience primary headaches. The GOP is focused on four democratically held seats – Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire – and can be disputed primaries anyway. Meanwhile from the top three seats the Democrats are aiming for, the GOP’s positions retire in two of them, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
“The only way to get through this civil war is to get everyone focused on 22,” said Scott Reed, a GOP veteran. “Concentrate on recruiting and candidates based on good Republican policies and ideas, and don’t make everything a referendum on Trump.”