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GOP Unwilling to Part With Trump 01/27 06:10
Donald Trump has lost his social media megaphone, the power of government
and the unequivocal support of his party's elected leaders. But a week after
leaving the White House in disgrace, a large-scale Republican defection that
would ultimately purge him from the party appears unlikely.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Donald Trump has lost his social media megaphone,
the power of government and the unequivocal support of his party's elected
leaders. But a week after leaving the White House in disgrace, a large-scale
Republican defection that would ultimately purge him from the party appears
unlikely.
Many Republicans refuse to publicly defend Trump's role in sparking the
deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But as the Senate prepares for an
impeachment trial for Trump's incitement of the riot, few seem willing to hold
the former president accountable.
After House Republicans who backed his impeachment found themselves facing
intense backlash --- and Trump's lieutenants signaled the same fate would meet
others who joined them --- Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for
an attempt to dismiss his second impeachment trial. Only five Republican
senators rejected the challenge to the trial.
Trump's conviction was considered a real possibility just days ago after
lawmakers whose lives were threatened by the mob weighed the appropriate
consequences --- and the future of their party. But the Senate vote on Tuesday
is a sign that while Trump may be held in low regard in Washington following
the riots, a large swath of Republicans is leery of crossing his supporters,
who remain the majority of the party's voters.
"The political winds within the Republican Party have blown in the opposite
direction," said Ralph Reed, chair of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a
Trump ally. "Republicans have decided that even if one believes he made
mistakes after the November election and on Jan. 6, the policies Trump
championed and victories he won from judges to regulatory rollback to life to
tax cuts were too great to allow the party to leave him on the battlefield."
The vote came after Trump, who decamped last week to his private Mar-a-Lago
club in Palm Beach, Florida, began wading back into politics between rounds of
golf. He took an early step into the Arkansas governor's race by endorsing
former White House aide Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and backed Kelli Ward, an ally
who won reelection as chair of Arizona's Republican Party after his endorsement.
At the same time, Trump's team has given allies an informal blessing to
campaign against the 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment.
After Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer backed impeachment, Republican Tom Norton
announced a primary challenge. Norton appeared on longtime Trump adviser Steve
Bannon's podcast in a bid to raise campaign contributions.
On Thursday, another Trump loyalist, Rep. Matt Gaetz, plans to travel to
Wyoming to condemn home-state Rep. Liz Cheney, a House GOP leader who said
after the Capitol riot that "there has never been a greater betrayal by a
president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."
Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. --- a star with Trump's loyal base ----
has encouraged Gaetz on social media and embraced calls for Cheney's removal
from House leadership.
Trump remains livid with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, who refused
to support Trump's false charges that Georgia's elections were fraudulent. Kemp
is up for reelection in 2022, and Trump has suggested former Rep. Doug Collins
run against him.
Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman's decision not to seek reelection in 2022
opens the door for Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Trump's most enthusiastic
supporters, to seek the seat. Several other Republicans, some far less
supportive of the former president, are also considering running.
Trump's continued involvement in national politics so soon after his
departure marks a dramatic break from past presidents, who typically stepped
out of the spotlight, at least temporarily. Former President Barack Obama was
famously seen kitesurfing on vacation with billionaire Richard Branson shortly
after he left office, and former President George W. Bush took up painting.
Trump, who craves the media spotlight, was never expected to burrow out of
public view.
"We will be back in some form," he told supporters at a farewell event
before he left for Florida. But exactly what form that will take is a work in
progress.
Trump remains deeply popular among Republican voters and is sitting on a
huge pot of cash --- well over $50 million --- that he could use to prop up
primary challenges against Republicans who backed his impeachment or refused to
support his failed efforts to challenge the election results using bogus
allegations of mass voter fraud in states like Georgia.
"POTUS told me after the election that he's going to be very involved," said
Matt Schlapp, the chair of the American Conservative Union. "I think he's going
to stay engaged. He's going to keep communicating. He's going to keep
expressing his opinions. I, for one, think that's great, and I encouraged him
to do that."
Aides say he also intends to dedicate himself to winning back the House and
Senate for Republicans in 2022. But for now, they say their sights are on the
trial.
"We're getting ready for an impeachment trial --- that's really the focus,"
said Trump adviser Jason Miller.
Trump aides have also spent recent days trying to assure Republicans that he
is not currently planning to launch a third party --- an idea he has floated
--- and will instead focus on using his clout in the Republican Party.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he received a call from Brian Jack, the
former White House political director, on Saturday at home to assure him that
Trump had no plans for defection.
"The main reason for the call was to make sure I knew from him that he's not
starting a third party and if I would be helpful in squashing any rumors that
he was starting a third party. And that his political activism or whatever role
he would play going forward would be with the Republican Party, not as a third
party," Cramer said.
The calls were first reported by Politico.
But the stakes remain high for Trump, whose legacy is a point of fierce
contention in a Republican Party that is grappling with its identity after
losing the White House and both chambers of Congress. Just three weeks after a
pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, Trump's political standing among Republican
leaders in Washington remains low.
"I don't know whether he incited it, but he was part of the problem, put it
that way," said Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a strong Trump supporter, when
asked about the Capitol siege and the related impeachment trial.
Tuberville did not say whether he would personally defend Trump in the
trial, but he downplayed the prospect of negative consequences for those
Republican senators who ultimately vote to convict him.
"I don't think there'll be any repercussions," Tuberville said. "People are
going to vote how they feel anyway."
Trump maintains a strong base of support within the Republican National
Committee and in state party leadership, but even there, Republican officials
have dared to speak out against him in recent days in ways they did not before.
In Arizona, Ward, who had Trump's backing, was only narrowly reelected over
the weekend, even as the party voted to censure a handful of Trump's Republican
critics, including former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen.
John McCain.
At the same time, Trump's prospective impeachment sparked a bitter feud
within the RNC.
In a private email exchange obtained by The Associated Press, RNC member
Demetra DeMonte of Illinois proposed a resolution calling on every Republican
senator to oppose what she called an "unconstitutional sham impeachment trial,
motivated by a radical and reckless Democrat majority."
Bill Palatucci, a Republican committeeman from New Jersey, slapped back.
"His act of insurrection was an attack on our very democracy and deserves
impeachment," Palatucci wrote.
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