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The result is a Republican Party in a struggle with itself over who will determine its path forward – and, more importantly, who should be kept out of the levers of power in the GOP. For now, party unity is giving way to recriminations, the culmination of the long-standing dispute between the party base and its ruling class that was mostly put on hold during Trump’s presidency, when few Republicans have dared to cross him.
“Republicans are getting out there and desperately looking to expose blame,” said Erick Erickson, the conservative commentator and radio host. “They’re going to have to make room for each other or let the Democrats crush them halfway.”
Erickson says the division within the party is not just philosophical but literal, with both sides having their own red flags within the GOP infrastructure.
“The pre-Trump establishment currently runs much of the political arm of the party, and the Trump wing controls the arms of the state party,” he said. “It can’t last and win the party.”
For Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a six-term Congressman from Illinois and one of 10 Republicans in the House to vote for impeachment, the party is in the midst of an uphill struggle for its own identity.
“I think we’re in a battle,” Kinzinger told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Monday. “And maybe this is a battle that really needs to take place for our party to say, what are we standing for? Not in politics, but above all, are we ambitious or are we a party who feeds on fear and division? “
Sanders enters, Portman exits
Two announcements on Monday reflected how much the Trump wing of the party remains in control of the GOP – and how members of the pre-Trump establishment are fading.
“A trusted confidant of the president, Sarah advised him on everything from press and communications strategy to staff and politics,” the statement read. “For two and a half years, Sarah worked closely with the President, wrestling with the media, working with lawmakers and CEOs, and accompanying the President on every trip abroad, including dozens of meetings with foreign leaders. ” Trump endorsed Sanders later Monday, saying in a statement that she “is a warrior 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 he doesn’t think a lot is going to get better in Washington, and we’re unlikely to take a majority in 22,” a strategist close to the collectors said. from Republican funds to CNN.
“We need all the moderates we can get,” said a second GOP strategist familiar with Ohio Republican politics. “He’s exactly the type we want, and now he’s going to be replaced by someone more ‘conservative’ by ideology or by positioning.”
McConnell and Cheney face backlash
But “more conservative” – or at least more devoted to Trump – is exactly what those most loyal to the former president want.
Cheney, the speaker of the House Republican Conference, was among the House Republicans who voted for impeachment earlier this month. For this vote, some of Trump’s strongest allies at the GOP conference are threatening to strip her of her leadership role. And one of them, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, is heading to Cheney, Wyoming, home state this week to denounce his vote.
McConnell, meanwhile, only signaled his openness to vote to condemn, but that was enough to increase the pressure from some fellow Republicans. And in two recent Senate speeches, the Republican leader harshly criticized Trump’s actions around the attack and denounced the president’s propagated lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
All of this made McConnell a target of pro-Trump voices in the conservative media.
“Mitch McConnell, if you don’t fight, we deserve better,” Fox News host Sean Hannity said last week. “You can go back to representing the people of Kentucky and leave somebody who knows how to lead, lead.”
Many Republicans with potential White House ambitions are therefore treading lightly.
The senses. Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, for example, did not object to the electoral vote count as did their other ambitious colleagues, the senses. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. But Trump remains popular among Republican voters, and most polls show little appetite among them to impeach Trump.
So Rubio and Cotton, along with other senators who may be considering running for president, have already indicated that they will not support Trump’s conviction – a potential cover against primary voters who might count loyalty. to Trump as an asset in a presidential election. candidate.
Trump’s party in the US too
In some states, party committees and local activists prey on those who have failed to defend Trump sufficiently. Backed by Trump himself, Republicans in Georgia have attacked their own elected officials, including Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, for failing to attempt to overturn the election.
In a statement following the January 13 House vote on impeachment, the Texas Republican Party called the vote “frivolous and cruel.” And last week, the Oregon Republican Party released a long, fictitious statement calling the 10 GOP votes to impeach Trump a “betrayal.”
Over the weekend, the Arizona Republican Party, which had just narrowly re-elected pro-Trump President Kelli Ward, passed resolutions censuring three of the state’s most prominent Republicans: Cindy McCain, the former Senator Jeff Flake and Governor Doug Ducey.
What happened in Arizona – a longtime Republican state that Trump lost and where Democrats are ascendant – worries longtime GOP agents like Michael Steel, a former senior aide to House Speaker John Boehner .
“If you tell the people of Arizona that your two-term, conservative, prosperous governor is somehow a problem, you doom yourself to minority status,” Steel told CNN.
Erickson agrees.
“A party that is not big enough for the daughter of Dick Cheney, the husband of Trump’s transportation secretary, the wife of John McCain and the sitting governors of Arizona and Georgia is not a party big enough to win, “he said.
CNN’s Fredreka Schouten, Jim Acosta and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.
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