Mainstream Republicans are getting increasingly caught up in the party’s internal fight over Trump’s legacy, with even strong conservatives such as Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) getting called out as barely loyal to Trump or “Republicans in name only.”
Trump again proved his control on the party’s activist base over the weekend by getting the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll with 70 percent of the vote, crushing the second-place winner, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came in a distant second with 21 percent.
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Trump praised his strong display by issuing a statement through Save America PAC: “98 percent approval rating at CPAC, the highest ever, by far. A new record!”
This makes it harder for leading Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to keep on overlooking Trump.
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McConnell during his tour of Kentucky during the July 4 recess kept to his months-long practice of not saying Trump’s name, instead referring to events that occurred during the past four years as having happened during “the previous administration.”
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Pressed by reporters on his views of Trump, McConnell has avoided the topic by saying he’s essentially focused on stopping President Biden’s agenda.
But Trump keeps rising in the national political conversation, even though he has been permanently suspended by Twitter and banned from Facebook, and major television networks have skipped carrying his rallies.
Trump on Monday cautioned that Republican candidates who don’t publicly recognize him are setting themselves up for failure in the next election. “Four years ago, a man named Ed Gillespie ran for Governor of Virginia without ‘embracing’ MAGA, or the America First movement. He tried to skirt the issue by wanting my endorsement, yet walking on both sides of the fence. The Trump base is very large in Virginia, they understood his game, and they didn’t come out for Gillespie, nor did I do anything to help or hurt. He got creamed!" Trump said in a statement through his PAC.
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Republican leaders have advanced to push their party members to focus on policy instead of Trump’s favorite topic, relitigating the results of the 2020 election.
“I think looking backward is a mistake. If Republicans are relitigating the last election, it means they’re not focusing on the next one,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) told reporters Monday when asked about the heat Senate GOP colleagues face for not supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
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