NEW YORK (AP) - Some New York lawmakers are calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's impeachment after reports late Thursday that his top aides altered a state Health Department report to omit the true number of people killed by COVID-19 in the state's nursing homes.
The Wall Street Journal and The ...
The House GOP’s No. 3 leader recently urged Republicans to make clear they’re not the party of white supremacy. Two days later, one of their members spoke at a conference organized by a known white nationalist.
The whiplash between Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) plea and Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R-Ariz.) public speech underscores just how tough it is for GOP leaders to rein in members who cater to the extreme wings of the party. As Republicans increasingly grapple with how — or even whether — to exorcise the most radical elements from their party, their leaders’ jobs won’t get any easier.
The House GOP has so far not confronted a huge political problem from Gosar’s speech to the America First Political Action Conference, or from other incidents that link a few of its members to far-right imagery or rhetoric.
But some fear that if the conference — which just ushered in a historically diverse freshman class — doesn’t stomp out those political brush fires now, there’s a risk they will spread and engulf the party. Democrats are already trying to make QAnon, the far-reaching conspiracy theory labeled as a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI, the face of the GOP ahead of the midterms.
“I think the organization that [Gosar] spoke to is one that has expressed views that are clearly racist … This is not the kind of an organization or an event that other members of Congress should be participating in,” said Cheney, the House GOP Conference chair who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump.
“I've been very clear about the extent to which we have to stand against white supremacists, stand against anti-Semitism,” added Cheney. “And that should not be part of our public discourse.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, the top two GOP leaders, have been silent on Gosar thus far, though both have condemned racism and bigotry in all forms. Said McCarthy spokesperson Mark Bednar: "There is absolutely no place for racism in our discourse or society."
Other Republicans privately said they were disturbed by Gosar’s appearance at the white nationalist conference and are concerned that it tacitly signals the embrace of extremist groups that have no place in the GOP. Only some were publicly willing to call out Gosar's attendance at the event.
“From what I understand of what AFPAC is and what it stands for, it is unbecoming of a member of Congress to speak or attend the conference,” said Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the head of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus in the House GOP conference.
The episode comes as most Republicans also voted, but failed, to keep freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in her committee assignments after she circulated conspiracy theories and endorsed social media posts calling for violence against Democrats.
Now, Republicans are questioning whether the embrace of far-right groups by federal lawmakers is giving power to organizations that had previously been stifled on the national stage.
“It's always been lurking in the shadows. And then they have a convention. ... It is completely nuts,” one GOP lawmaker said of the AFPAC event, where organizer Nick Fuentes called for protection of “the white demographic core” and pushed other racist rhetoric.
“It's really disgusting, nefarious stuff," this Republican lawmaker added. "And this is the stuff you have to just actively beat back.”
The GOP’s rightward drift toward extremism has been years in the making, but the violent insurrection on Jan. 6 — when white supremacists, Holocaust deniers and QAnon believers stormed the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win — has only amplified a bitter internal debate about the direction of the party.
Democrats argue that moves like Gosar's speech prove that extremists are winning the battle for the GOP's soul.
“The idea that a sitting member of Congress would go and show his support and solidarity for racist white nationalists is an outrage,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead impeachment manager during Trump's second impeachment trial, which ended in his acquittal of inciting the Jan. 6 attack.
“But it is a terrible statement about the moral deterioration of the Republican Party. I would hope that the Republican caucus would immediately take action against members who are consorting with white nationalists,” he added.
That's not to say House Republican leaders haven't vocally condemned white supremacy, anti-Semitism and other racist beliefs. Gosar himself denounced “white racism” and later tried to distance himself from AFPAC. But the Arizonan also told the Washington Post that he was seeking to cultivate relationships with new voters.
GOP leaders have dismissed accusations that Republicans are increasingly tolerant of far-right ideologies in an effort to not alienate voters, particularly those brought to into the party's fold under Trump.
Yet the former president has winked at the QAnon movement and refused to denounce white nationalist groups like the Proud Boys during the first presidential debate last year. Instead, Trump said the Proud Boys should “stand back and stand by,” which the group has turned into a slogan. He also said there were "very fine people on both sides" of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
“I think most people are going out of their way to distance themselves from the extremists,” said another GOP lawmaker. “But some people are embracing it. And other people may be not paying enough attention to what they’re doing.”
“We all need to pay more attention to the things we say and do, and where we say and do them,” this Republican lawmaker added.
McCarthy (R-Calif.), who wants to unite the party in his drive to win back the House, has recently claimed to not know what QAnon is and routinely mispronounces its name. He also did little to stop Greene from winning her runoff race even after POLITICO uncovered a string of racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic Facebook videos she made.
And Scalise (R-La.), who survived a 2017 assassination attempt when a radicalized left-wing gunman opened fire on GOP members playing baseball, has called out Democrats for failing to condemn violence during Black Lives Matter protests over the summer that responded to police brutality against unarmed Black people.
“We’ve been very vocal speaking out against white supremacy, any kind of bigotry, or hatred,” Scalise said. “I think it’s important that you call it out wherever you see it. Not only on the opposite side of the aisle, but on your own.”
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has gone further, making clear that far-right extremists such as Greene have no place in the party. “Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,” McConnell said last month.
This year isn't the first time House GOP leaders have faced problematic right-wing members in their ranks. Former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) — who also spoke at AFPAC last week — espoused white nationalist views and other controversial beliefs during his time in office, but it took years for Republican leaders to punish him by kicking him off his committees. When King finally lost his primary in 2020, party leaders sighed with relief.
Today there is a growing cohort of members who could create King-like headaches for GOP leaders. Aside from Greene and Gosar, freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has associated with far-right gun groups; freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) has faced scrutiny for past social media posts about Adolf Hitler, which he later said were a mistake; and Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) were ringleaders of the effort to challenge the election certification in Congress.
Investigators are looking into what role, if any, lawmakers played in the Jan. 6 riots. Boebert has been criticized for live-tweeting Speaker Nancy Pelosi's whereabouts during the siege; she also denied giving Capitol tours to anyone other than her family ahead of the riots.
Notably, Republicans' internal discussions over how to handle far-right ideology come as they criticize Democrats for failing to loudly denounce some of their own members' controversial remarks — particularly Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), whose comments on Israel were met with a resolution from her party denouncing hate speech.
“In our political discourse, there are things that should be beyond the bounds,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.). "And ideology of hate is beyond the bounds, whether it's on the left or the right."
FRANKFORT, Ky (AP) - Gov. Andy Beshear’s legal team has submitted a bill seeking nearly $18,000 in reimbursement from people who unsuccessfully pushed for his impeachment over his actions to slow the spread of COVID-19, according to expenses submitted to lawmakers.
Beshear’s lawyers spent nearly 160 hours in successfully defending ...
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York’s attorney general has promised a thorough investigation of allegations that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least two women.
But if the investigation finds evidence of wrongdoing, what then? Who gets to decide what discipline, if any, the Democrat might face?
New York has ...
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Thursday offered her opinion that the Legislature could easily convene to consider impeaching the state’s attorney general for his role in a fatal car crash, putting her at odds with the Republican lawmaker overseeing the proceedings.
As lawmakers consider a ...
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
● House: Thanks to the recent completion of Daily Kos Elections' effort to calculate the 2020 presidential election results by congressional district, we now know that Joe Biden won 224 districts to Donald Trump's 211, a net increase of 15 seats for Democrats compared to the 2016 results under the same district lines. In a new story, Stephen Wolf has created maps and a chart showing the geography and electoral stats of the 19 districts that changed parties at the presidential level in 2020. Of those districts, 17 flipped from backing Trump in 2016 to Biden last year, while two districts switched from supporting Hillary Clinton four years ago to voting for Trump in 2020.
The districts that changed hands share some demographic commonalities, and many were competitive at the House level in November. Those that went from Trump to Biden include many historically red suburban seats with high levels of college education and voters who have grown increasingly hostile to the Republican Party under Trump. That's an extension of the pattern seen in 2016, when Clinton also flipped many historically red suburban seats.
Campaign ActionUnlike four years ago when Trump flipped many districts with large populations of white voters without a college degree, the two districts that Trump picked up this time both have large populations of Latino voters, a demographic that shifted sharply back toward Republicans in 2020 after giving Clinton historically high levels of support four years earlier.
● CA-Gov: Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a vocal proponent of the effort to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, isn't so sure about running himself if the recall makes the ballot. "I'm not planning on it now," he told Politico this week, adding that he'll "look at how the field shapes up."
● CO-Gov: Businessman Greg Lopez, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has announced that he'll try for the Republican nod to take on Democratic Gov. Jared Polis again next year. The little-known Lopez finished a surprising second at the state GOP's convention three years ago, which allowed him to move on to the party's primary, but his campaign was badly underfunded and he ended up a very distant third with just 13% of the vote.
● KS-Gov: Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who'd reportedly been looking at a bid against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, now confirms that he's "seriously considering" a campaign, though he did not offer a timetable for a decision.
● MN-Gov: Unnamed GOP operatives tell the Minnesota Reformer that Republican state Sen. Michelle Benson could be a candidate for governor next year, when Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is up for re-election, though there's no word on whether she's interested. So far, no major Republican names have entered the race.
● PA-Gov: The Cook Political Report adds former Lackawanna County Commissioner Laureen Cummings to the long list of Republicans who could run for governor next year, though she doesn't appear to have said anything publicly. Cummings briefly ran for the Senate in 2012 before dropping down to challenge Democrat Matt Cartwright for what was then the newly redrawn 17th Congressional District and got smooshed.
● LA-02: Democratic state Sen. Troy Carter has released a mid-February internal survey conducted by veteran New Orleans pollster Silas Lee that finds him leading the March 20 all-party primary with 28% of the vote, which is below the majority he'd need to avoid an April runoff. The poll finds that Carter's most likely opponent is fellow state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, who edges out a third Democrat, activist Gary Chambers, 19-6 for second place.
The only other poll we've seen of the contest for this safely blue seat was a late February survey conducted for Trust the People PAC, a group opposed to Carter, that also found the two state senators advancing. Unfortunately, the PAC did not reveal the name of its pollster, which is information we require for inclusion in the Digest.
● NC-11: Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara just kicked off a bid against freshman Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn, making her the first notable Democrat to do so. Beach-Ferrara, who described herself "a gay woman who's a Christian minister" in her announcement video, won a second four-year term on the commission last year. Buncombe, which is home to the college town of Asheville, makes up about a third of North Carolina's 11th District and is its bluest bastion. The district overall is quite red, though: According to new calculations from Daily Kos Elections, it supported Donald Trump 55-43 last year.
● OH-01: Ohio's 1st Congressional District may already be represented by a member of his own party, but Franklin Mayor Brent Centers is eagerly trying to elbow aside Republican Rep. Steve Chabot ahead of next year's midterms. That may not go so well, however: Centers says "my assumption and the assumption of a lot of people who are endorsing me" is that Chabot will retire, but a spokesperson for the congressman says he's running for a 14th term and pointed to an op-ed Chabot wrote immediately after winning his second straight difficult re-election campaign in November saying he'd be on the ballot in 2022.
According to Centers, though, that hasn't stopped a whole host of officials in his home base of Warren County from backing his would-be candidacy, which he says he plans to launch in early May. It's possible that some of these local pols think they're avoiding a direct conflict with Chabot because Warren could be drawn into another neighboring district, and Centers even hinted that could set him on a collision course with two other Republicans: Reps. Warren Davidson and Brad Wenstrup. But redistricting is still a long ways away, so if Centers is serious about kicking off a bid in just two months' time, he'll have to make it clear whether or not he's actually going to primary Chabot.
● TX-06: There was a surprise less than an hour before candidate filing closed Wednesday when Dan Rodimer, who was the Republican nominee for Nevada's 3rd District last year, filled out paperwork to run in the May 1 special all-party primary. Rodmier's campaign didn't come completely out of nowhere, as the Dallas Morning News' Gromer Jeffers mentioned him as a possible contender last week, but the former WWE wrestler hadn't said anything publicly until now.
Rodimer, whose Twitter account still listed his location as Las Vegas even as he was filing to run in the Lone Star State, said, "We need fighters in Texas, and that's what I'm coming here for. I'm moving back to Texas." We'll have more about Rodimer and the rest of this crowded field in our next Digest.
Meanwhile, former Trump spokesperson Katrina Pierson tweeted on Tuesday night that she'd be sitting the contest out. A third Republican, party activist Susan Wright, also earned an endorsement this week from 21st District Rep. Chip Roy in her quest to succeed her late husband, Rep. Ron Wright.
● TX-13: The Department of Defense on Wednesday released its long-awaited inspector general’s report into allegations against freshman Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson from his time as chief White House physician, and it concluded that he displayed egregious behavior during his tenure.
The report concluded that Jackson “engaged in inappropriate conduct involving the use of alcohol” during two presidential trips; “disparaged, belittled, bullied, and humiliated” subordinates, which included “sexual and denigrating” comments against one; and “took Ambien during official travel, raising concerns about his potential incapacity to provide medical care during his travel.”
Jackson, who represents one of the most Republican seats in the nation, responded by once again declaring, “Democrats are using this report to repeat and rehash untrue attacks on my integrity.”
● WA-04: Far-right ex-cop Loren Culp, who lost a bid for governor by a 57-43 margin to Democratic incumbent Jay Inslee last year, suggested this week that he might run against Rep. Dan Newhouse in Washington's 4th Congressional District next year. Newhouse, of course, is one of just 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump, earning him the ire of local GOP officials and conservative activists alike.
However, a Culp campaign could actually benefit him. That's because Republican state Rep. Brad Klippert already launched a challenge in January, meaning that the high-profile Culp might only help fracture the disaffected Trumpist vote on the right. Klippert does have one advantage, though: His entire legislative district is contained in the 4th, while Culp, notes NCWLIFE's Jefferson Robbins, doesn't even live in Newhouse's district but rather in the 5th.
● WI-03: Republican Derrick Van Orden, who previously had not ruled out a rematch against Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, says he is "very seriously considering" another bid, though he did not say when he might decide.
● Special Elections: Here's a recap of Tuesday's special elections:
AL-SD-26: Democrat Kirk Hatcher defeated Republican William Green 78-22 to hold this seat for his party. Hatcher's win was right in line with past Democratic performances in this district. According to FiveThiryEight's Nathaniel Rakich, Hillary Clinton won this district 77-20 in 2016 and former Sen. David Burkette won here 80-20 in 2018.
Republicans now have a 27-7 majority in this chamber with one other seat vacant.
CA-SD-10: As of early Wednesday, Democrat Sydney Kamlager was leading in this South Los Angeles-area district and is on track to easily avoid a runoff. Kamlager declared victory and was leading her closest competition, fellow Democrat Daniel Lee, 68-13.
As the likely outcome of this race is a Democratic hold, the composition of this chamber would return to a 31-9 lead for Team Blue.
CT-SD-27: Democrat Patricia Miller defeated Republican Joshua Esses to hold this seat for her party. The state of Connecticut has not released vote totals for this race yet, but according to the Stamford Advocate, Miller was leading by approximately 100 votes and Esses had conceded the race.
This chamber will return to a 24-12 advantage for Democrats.
MA-HD-19th Suffolk: Former Winthrop Town Council president Jeffrey Turco won the Democratic primary in this reliably blue seat in the Winthrop area. Turco came out ahead of union representative Juan Jaramillo 36-30 in a contest where there were very sharp ideological contrasts between the two top contenders.
Jaramillo was endorsed by notable progressives such as Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and also had the backing of several labor groups, such as the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Turco, meanwhile, voted for Donald Trump in 2016, was supported by several police unions, and received backlash from groups such as NARAL for his stance on reproductive rights. Turco's support of GOP candidates extended into the 2020 cycle as well, when he donated to the re-election campaign of Maine Sen. Susan Collins.
Former Massachusetts House staffer Alicia DelVento, meanwhile, took third with 26% while Valentino Capobianco, who is chief of staff to state Sen. Paul Feeney, took 7%. Capobianco had the backing of establishment figures such as state Attorney General Maura Healey and former Rep. Joe Kennedy but lost their support when sexual misconduct allegations surfaced against him.
Turco will begin as the favorite over Republican Paul Caruccio in the March 30 general election in this district that supported Hillary Clinton 60-36 in 2016.
● New York City, NY Mayor: On Wednesday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams earned an endorsement from the Hotel Trades Council, which is one of the major unions in city politics, for the June instant-runoff Democratic primary.
● St. Louis, MO Mayor: St. Louis on Tuesday became the first large city in America to host a race using an "approval voting" system, which allows voters to cast as many votes in the primary as there are candidates, and City Treasurer Tishaura Jones and Alderman Cara Spencer advanced to next month's nonpartisan general election.
Tishaura Jones, who narrowly lost the 2017 Democratic primary to retiring incumbent Lyda Krewson under the old system, won support from 57% of voters, while 46% selected Cara Spencer as a choice. A third Democratic contender, Aldermanic President Lewis Reed, earned the backing of 39% of voters, while 19% selected Republican Andrew Jones.
Tishaura Jones and Cara Spencer will compete again in the April 6 general election, where voters will only be able to select one of them. Tishaura Jones would be the city's first Black leader since 2001.
● St. Petersburg, FL Mayor: St. Pete Polls, working on behalf of Florida Politics, surveys the August nonpartisan primary of its namesake city and finds three Democrats in a close fight for the two spots in a likely general election, though with a large plurality of voters still undecided. City Councilwoman Darden Rice leads with 15%, while former Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch and former state Rep. Wengay Newton are each just behind with 14%; another five candidates were tested, but none of them took more than 5% of the vote.
St. Pete also tests a hypothetical November matchup between Rice and Welch and finds Welch ahead 31-24.
● Pres-by-CD: We've made some minor adjustments to our calculations of the 2020 presidential election results by congressional district in Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York based on more precise data we've received since we initially published our findings for each state.
The largest shift came in New Jersey, which resulted in 427 votes moving between the 5th District to the 9th, with Donald Trump's margin increasing by that sum in the former and Biden's growing a corresponding amount in the latter. We also corrected a minor error in Oklahoma that resulted in a total of 484 votes shifting from the 4th District to the 5th with no change to the raw vote margin between the two candidates.
● Where Are They Now?: The district attorney’s office in Shawnee County, Kansas announced this week that it had reached a diversion agreement with former Republican Rep. Steve Watkins that would allow him to avoid trial over voter fraud charges. If Watkins follows the conditions, avoids breaking the law, and pays a $250 fine, the charges against him would be dropped in September.
Back in late 2019, the Topeka Capital-Journal first reported that Watkins may have committed voter fraud by listing a UPS store in Topeka as his home address on his voter registration form and then proceeding to cast a ballot the previous month as though he lived there. Watkins’ team insisted he’d made an "inadvertent" error and insisted he had "no improper purpose" because the UPS store and his supposed residence are both in the same county and congressional district. However, the locations are in different city council districts, and the contest Watkins cast his ballot in was decided by just 13 votes.
Local authorities began investigating Watkins for potential voter fraud soon afterwards, and they charged him the following July with three felonies, including lying to law enforcement. Watkins, who was already facing a tough intra-party challenge from state Treasurer Jake LaTurner even before the UPS story broke, argued he was the victim of a “hyper-political” attack, but LaTurner beat him by a blistering 49-34 margin that following month and went on to prevail in November. As part of Watkins’ diversion agreement, he acknowledged that he’d lied to a detective by claiming he hadn’t voted in that tight city council contest.
On Wednesday, House Democrats voted 220-210 to pass H.R. 1, the “For the People Act,” which is the most important set of voting and election reforms since the historic Voting Rights Act was adopted in 1965. These reforms, which House Democrats previously passed in 2019, face a challenging path to in the Senate given Democrats’ narrow majority and uncertainty over whether they can overcome a GOP filibuster, but their adoption is critical for preserving American democracy amid unprecedented attack by Republican extremists both in and outside Congress.
H.R. 1 would implement transformative changes to federal elections by (1) removing barriers to expanding access to voting and securing the integrity of the vote; (2) establishing public financing in House elections to level the playing field; and (3) banning congressional gerrymandering by requiring that every state create a nonpartisan redistricting commission subject to nonpartisan redistricting criteria.
Using Congress’ power to regulate Senate and House elections under the Elections Clause and enforce anti-discrimination laws under the 14th Amendment, the bill would:
Ending Republicans’ ability to gerrymander is of the utmost importance after Republicans won the power to redistrict two-to-three times as many congressional districts as Democrats after the 2020 elections. If congressional Democrats don’t act, Republican dominance in redistricting may practically guarantee that Republicans retake the House in 2022 even if Democrats once again win more votes, an outcome that could lead to congressional Republicans more seriously trying to overturn a Democratic victory in the 2024 Electoral College vote than they did January, when two-thirds of the House caucus voted to overturn Biden's election.
If this bill becomes law, Republicans would lose that unfettered power to rig the House playing field to their advantage. Instead, reform proponents would gain the ability to challenge unfair maps in court over illegal partisan discrimination, and the bill would eventually require states to create independent redistricting commissions that would take the process out of the hands of self-interested legislators entirely.
Protecting the right to vote is just as paramount when Republican lawmakers across the country have introduced hundreds of bills to adopt new voting restrictions by furthering the lies Donald Trump told about the election that led directly to January's insurrection at the Capitol. With Republican legislatures likely to pass many of these bills into law—and the Supreme Court's conservative partisans poised to further undermine existing protections for voting rights—congressional action is an absolute must to protect the ability of voters to cast their ballots.
The most important remaining hurdle, however, is the legislative filibuster: The fate of these reforms will depend on Senate Democrats either abolishing or curtailing it. Progressive activists have relaunched a movement to eliminate the filibuster entirely, while some experts have suggested that Democrats could carve out an exception for voting rights legislation. Either way, Democrats will need to address the filibuster in some fashion, since Senate Republicans have made it clear they will not provide the support necessary to reach a 60-vote supermajority to pass H.R. 1 into law.
The back-and-forth between Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell underscores GOP turmoil as they look to regain control of Congress and the White House.
National Republican Congressional Committee Chair (NRCC) Tom Emmer warned former President Trump against backing primary challenges to Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach him.
Emmer made the comments in an interview with Politico.
“He can do whatever he wants,” said the Minnesota Republican. “But I would tell him that it’s probably better for us that we keep these people and we make sure that we have a majority that can be sustained going forward.”
On Trump weighing into the primaries, Emmer said, “That’s not gonna be helpful.”
Still, Emmer opined that it would be wise for the party to embrace some of Trump’s policies because they brought Republicans “a lot of new voters” and were “hugely popular.”
NEWS: @NRCC Chair @RepTomEmmer told @POLITICOLive this morning that TRUMP should NOT weigh into primaries against members who voted to impeach him.
“That’s not gonna be helpful,” he said.
He plans to talk to Trump about not challenging the rank & file.
STORY SOON…
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) March 3, 2021
RELATED: Trump Plans New Super PAC, Setting His Sights On 2022 Elections
President Trump last week announced that he was planning to form a super PAC, a sure sign he intends to help shape the future of the Republican party heading into 2022 and 2024.
Seven out of the 10 Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of impeaching Trump are already facing primary challenges for their congressional seats.
Adam Kinzinger (IL), one of those seven being primaried and who voted in favor of impeachment, formed a new PAC of his own, claiming he is fighting to “take back” the party from Trump.
Adam is a patriot who fought for America from Northwest Florida.
We will always appreciate & honor his service.
Now, he wants to target my America First politics, referencing me by name.
My response:
Fucking bring it.
Adam needs PACs to win elections.
I don’t. https://t.co/TE9TPt6QJv
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) February 11, 2021
In a statement last month, Trump savaged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying he is “a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack” and indicating he was willing to wage war against the establishment GOP.
“The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political ‘leaders’ like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm,” he added.
While McConnell did not vote in favor of impeachment, he certainly placed blame on the former President for a riot at the Capitol in January.
NRCC finance chair: Republicans who voted for Trump impeachment will still receive funding for reelection campaigns https://t.co/gp0LsSsCLP pic.twitter.com/LHzGDIFkXO
— The Hill (@thehill) February 12, 2021
RELATED: Nearly 50% Of Trump Voters Say They Will Follow Him To Another Party And Abandon The GOP
Emmer needs to find a way to back Trump, not the other way around.
The NRCC last month released a list of 47 “vulnerable Democrats” they plan to target in 2022 in an effort to take back the House.
The memo reminds voters that Republicans are “just five seats short of a majority” following some unexpected successes in the 2020 election.
But how do they think those unexpected successes came about? It wasn’t because Trump supporters stayed away from the polls.
You do NOT want to be one of these 47 @HouseDemocrats
Check out our newly released list detailing offensive pick-up opportunities for the 2022 cycle >>>https://t.co/dFAvhIqse9
— NRCC (@NRCC) February 10, 2021
A newly released poll indicates a majority – nearly 50 percent – of Trump voters would follow the former President to a new party and abandon the GOP.
And while he has shied away from announcing a new party, Trump would certainly hold some weight when it comes to his supporters voting in favor of primary challenges.
Other polls have shown a vast majority of GOP voters want to see Trump play a big role in the future of the party and a supermajority of them want their legislators to be more like Trump and less like establishment politicians.
Emmer told Politico he expects to have a conversation with Trump “at some point” about how to move forward.
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