Category: Evan McMullin

Trump says Mike Lee ‘abused’ by Romney

Posted on (Updated by Morgan Chalfant

Former President Trump slammed Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Wednesday, accusing him of "abusing" his Utah colleague Sen. Mike Lee (R) following news that Romney has refrained from issuing an endorsement in Lee's reelection campaign.

"Mike Lee is an outstanding Senator who has been abused, in an unprecedented way, by a fellow Republican Senator from his own State, something which rarely has happened in political History," Trump said in a statement issued through his Save America PAC.

"Such an event would only be understandable if Mike did not perform his duties as a United States Senator, but he has, and he has performed them well," the former president continued.

Lee, who is in a tight race with Independent challenger Evan McMullin, appealed to Romney on Tuesday evening during a conversation with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, asking his colleague to help him win.

“Well, I’ve asked him. I’m asking him right here, again, tonight, right now. Mitt, if you’d like to protect the Republican majority, give us any chance of seizing the Republican majority, once again, getting it away from the Democrats, who are facilitating this massive spending spree in a massive inflationary binge, please get on board,” Lee said.

In his appeal, Lee mentioned that the contest between himself and McMullin, a former CIA officer, was getting tighter. According to nonpartisan handicapper Cook Political Report, the race is rated "likely Republican." However, recent polling shows that McMullin is closing the gap.

For his part, Romney said he's refrained from making an endorsement because he is friends with both Lee and McMullin, who left the Republican party in 2016 after Trump won the party's presidential nomination, and ran against him as an Independent.

“I’ve worked with Mike a lot and appreciate the work we do together. But both are good friends, and I’m going to stay out,” Romney said in a statement to The Hill.

Romney also caught Trump's ire after he voted to convict the former president of one count during his first impeachment trial and has been a critic of the Trump administration in the past. Trump has called Romney a "super RINO," or "Republican in name only."

On Wednesday, Trump said that McMullin did not represent the values of Utah, "but neither, as you will see in two years, does Mitt Romney, who refuses to endorse his fellow Republican Senator, Mike Lee."

"Mike Lee is outstanding and has my Complete and Total Endorsement. Mitt Romney and Evan McMuffin can count on the fact that they will never have my Endorsement!," he concluded.

Report: Trump Set To Deliver Speech Claiming ‘I’m Still In Charge’ Of GOP

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Donald Trump will reportedly deliver a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida this weekend in which he will claim the mantle of power in the GOP by saying he is “still in charge.”

A longtime adviser to the former President tells Axios that the speech will be a “show of force” in which he will announce, “I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I’m still in charge.”

Going a step further, Trump is expected to argue that he is still the man to drain the Washington swamp as the Republican “presumptive 2024 nominee.”

Trump will be making his speech on Sunday, the final day of the conference.

During the week, Axios adds, “advisers will meet with him at Mar-a-Lago” where they will “plan his next political moves” and “set up the machinery for kingmaking in the 2022 midterms.”

RELATED: Majority of Trump Voters Say They Will Follow Him to Another Party and Abandon the GOP

Is Trump In Charge of the Republican Party?

Donald Trump certainly seems to have the numbers to back up his claims of being in charge of the Republican party.

A poll released this past weekend indicates nearly 50 percent of Trump voters would follow the former President to a new party and abandon the GOP altogether.

A vast majority of GOP voters want to see him play a big role in the future of the party, including running again in 2024.

Trump is strategically leaving that option open to give him leverage within the party and with voters.

“Trump effectively is the Republican Party,” Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told Axios. “The only chasm is between Beltway insiders and grassroots Republicans around the country.”

He added, “When you attack President Trump, you’re attacking the Republican grassroots.”

RELATED: ‘Never-Trump’ Republicans Looking To Form Their Own Party

Who Is In Charge of the GOP?

Miller’s point is one of the more important ones that establishment Republicans don’t seem to understand.

When they attack Trump, they don’t just do so as a matter of principle. They do so with disdain and a personal vendetta which reflects poorly to and upon his supporters.

As an example, a group led by former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin announced recently that they are considering forming their own political party.

In his statement regarding the anti-Trump party, McMullin portrayed supporters of the former President as extremists who are a threat to the country.

“Large portions of the Republican Party are radicalizing and threatening American democracy,” McMullin told Reuters. “The party needs to recommit to truth, reason and founding ideals or there clearly needs to be something new.”

The biggest threat to American democracy has been, and always will be, the Democrat party – McMullin and the anti-Trumpers good friends.

Axios notes that Trump stands ready to support candidates who share his vision for America in the 2022 midterms and has the backing of state-level officials, many of whom censured Republicans who voted in lockstep with Democrats on impeachment.

The former president’s speech will claim “many of his predictions about President Biden have already come true” and that “much like 2016, we’re taking on Washington again.”

That includes everybody in Washington on both sides of the political aisle.

The post Report: Trump Set To Deliver Speech Claiming ‘I’m Still In Charge’ Of GOP appeared first on The Political Insider.

Majority Of Trump Voters Say They Will Follow Him To Another Party And Abandon The GOP

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

A poll released this past weekend indicates a majority – nearly 50 percent – of Trump voters would follow the former President to a new party and abandon the GOP.

The Suffolk University/USA TODAY survey indicates 46 percent of those who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 would join the third party if he were to go that route.

“If there’s a civil war in the Republican Party, the voters who backed Donald Trump in November’s election are ready to choose sides,” USA Today writes. “Behind Trump.”

By contrast, 27 percent of Trump voters said they would stick with the GOP while another 27 percent said they were, as of yet, undecided.

The polling represents another in a series of findings that indicate voters are more in line with the vision of the former President than they are with the Mitch McConnells and Liz Cheneys of the world.

RELATED: Polls: Majority Of Republicans Want Trump In 2024, Prefer He Play Big Role In GOP’s Future

Trump Voters Willing to Abandon GOP

Poll after poll seems to indicate Donald Trump continues to be popular with Republican voters, a terrible sign for those trying to instigate an in-party civil war with the former president.

A vast majority of GOP voters want to see him play a big role in the future of the party, including running again in 2024.

A Rasmussen survey in late December indicated 72 percent of Republican voters want their legislators to be more like Trump and less like establishment politicians like McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader.

Brandon Keidl, 27, a Republican and small-business owner from Milwaukee, told USA Today following their survey why he supports Trump.

“We feel like Republicans don’t fight enough for us, and we all see Donald Trump fighting for us as hard as he can, every single day,” Keidl explained.

“But then you have establishment Republicans who just agree with establishment Democrats and everything, and they don’t ever push back.”

It really is that simple. Trump remains popular because he fights for the American people. It was true in 2016, and it will remain true even as we barrel toward 2024.

RELATED: Poll: The Republican Party Is More Marjorie Taylor Greene Than It Is Liz Cheney

More Bad News For the Anti-Trumpers

To Keidl’s point, it seems that establishment Republicans of late are willing to fight harder against Donald Trump and his supporters than they ever were against Democrats.

Earlier this month, for example, a group of “anti-Trump” Republicans led by former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin announced that they are considering forming a political party of their own.

Republican Adam Kinzinger (IL), one of only 10 Republicans in the House to have voted in favor of impeachment earlier this year, formed a new PAC which he claims is fighting to “take back” the Republican Party from Trump.

Speculation of Trump forming a third party has been ongoing since the election, though those rumors have subsided a bit.

Perhaps more frightening for the establishment GOP? 

The Guardian reports that Trump, in a speech he will deliver later this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida, is expected to argue that he is still the man to drain the Washington swamp as the Republican “presumptive 2024 nominee.”

This civil war isn’t going to end well for the party.

The post Majority Of Trump Voters Say They Will Follow Him To Another Party And Abandon The GOP appeared first on The Political Insider.