Category: Republican Party

McCarthy launch of Biden impeachment inquiry into Biden appears to win over reluctant Republicans

Posted on by Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's sudden decision to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden appears to have won over even the most reluctant Republicans, and some GOP lawmakers are pushing for it to move quickly rather than drag into the 2024 election year.

After Getting Trump Endorsement, Message Surfaces Showing J.D. Vance In 2016 Worrying Trump Was ‘America’s Hitler’

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

After scoring an endorsement earlier this week from the former president, a text message has surfaced showing Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance worrying in 2016 that Trump was either “a cynical asshole” or “America’s Hitler.”

The news demonstrates just how important it is to vet people for their endorsement and how Donald Trump seemingly hasn’t learned that lesson.

“In the Great State of Ohio, the candidate most qualified and ready to win in November is J.D. Vance,” Trump said in a statement released Friday. “We cannot play games. It is all about winning!”

He also acknowledges that Vance has made some disparaging comments about him in the past.

“Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades,” Trump beamed.

RELATED: I’m Just Going To Say This: Trump’s Endorsement Of Dr. Oz Is The Wrong Move

J.D. Vance Worried Trump Was ‘America’s Hitler’

We’re all for people finally seeing the light on President Trump’s potential and desire to make America great again, but certain comments seem a bit too far gone.

GOP officials in Ohio urged Trump not to back Vance or any candidate in the Senate race.

“We know there are many qualified candidates in this race who have stood up for the ‘America First’ agenda over the years and have carried the Trump mantle over the years, again with the notable exception of JD Vance,” party leaders said in a letter to Trump.

Vance, a current populist firebrand and author of the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” threatened to back Hillary Clinton in 2016 and called Trump “another opioid.”

“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,” Vance he told Fox News last year. “And I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016, because I’ve been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy.”

RELATED: Candidate Trump Endorsed To Replace Liz Cheney Called Him ‘Racist And Xenophobic’

Trump’s Endorsements Gone Wrong

How wrong was Vance ‘about the guy’? Try, unhinged liberal lunatic-level wrong.

Georgia Representative Josh McLaurin, a Democrat who claims to have been Vance’s roommate at Yale University, shared a 2016 text message contending to be from the Ohio Senate candidate.

In the message, Vance laments the fact that Trump had become the face of the Republican party.

“We are, whether we like it or not, the party of lower-income, lower-education white people, and I have been saying for a long time that we need to offer those people SOMETHING (and hell, maybe even expand our appeal to working-class black people in the process) or a demagogue would,” he allegedly wrote. “We are now at the point.”

The message continued: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a****** like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler. How’s that for discouraging?”

No Denial

Vance’s campaign didn’t deny the message came from him.

“It’s laughable that the media treats JD not liking Trump 6 years ago as some sort of breaking news, when they’ve already covered it to death since this race began,” his campaign manager told Newsweek.

Vance’s campaign manager added that Trump obviously views him as “a genuine convert.”

Last week, The Political Insider reported that Trump had endorsed Mehmet Oz – better known as Dr. Oz – in the Pennsylvania GOP primary for the U.S. Senate.

This, despite a history of decidedly non-conservative viewpoints on abortion, fracking, and gun control.

Trump Supports Hageman

Trump has also thrown his support in Wyoming to Harriet Hageman, the attorney running against Liz Cheney in an upcoming primary.

Hageman vociferously supported Cheney during her 2016 congressional campaign, and strongly opposed President Trump at the time.

In fact, she tried to stop Trump from getting the Republican nomination in 2016, and called him “racist and xenophobic.”

Backing Winners

Each time he makes one of these questionable endorsements, Trump indicates it’s all about backing a winner.

“This is all about winning elections in order to stop the Radical Left maniacs from destroying our country,” Trump said in his endorsement of Oz.

We’re skeptical he wouldn’t start looking for someone better if somebody like Mitt Romney was the best chance of stopping a Democrat in his Senate race. 

Maybe we’re wrong. He did, after all, endorse Romney in 2018. Romney has done nothing but stab him in the back since, voting to convict Trump in his impeachment trial over the former President’s alleged role in the Capitol riot.

Will these other candidates do the same – bend the knee for an endorsement only to drive a knife in the back of conservatives when the fate of the country is on the line?

The post After Getting Trump Endorsement, Message Surfaces Showing J.D. Vance In 2016 Worrying Trump Was ‘America’s Hitler’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

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.

GOP a ‘grotesque caricature’ of what it was before, says former Sen. John Danforth

Posted on by PBS NewsHour - Politics
John Danforth, a former Republican senator, garnered attention last month when he denounced Sen. Josh Hawley's role in the Capitol attacks and expressed regret over his previous support for the Missouri lawmaker. He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his views on the modern-day Republican Party, former President Trump's impeachment, and the impact of questioning the legitimacy of the election.

With Trump out of office, the Republican Party is having an identity crisis

Posted on by PBS NewsHour - Politics
The Republican Party is out of power on Capitol Hill and deeply divided on issues from the attack on the Capitol to the impeachment of former President Trump. Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and chief strategist at the Network Contagion Research Institute, and Whit Ayres, the president of North Star Opinion Research, join Judy Woodruff to discuss.