Trump’s GOP: Party further tightens tie to former president – Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) In 2016, Donald Trump overtook the Republican National Committee through a shock and awe campaign that stunned party leaders. In 2020, the party was obligated to support him as the sitting Republican president.

Heading into 2024, however, the Republican Party has a choice.

The RNC, which controls the partys rules and infrastructure, is under no obligation to support Trump again. In fact, the GOPs bylaws specifically require neutrality should more than one candidate seek the partys presidential nomination.

But as Republican officials from across the country gathered in Utah this week for the RNCs winter meeting, party leaders devoted considerable energy to disciplining Trumps rivals and embracing his grievances. As the earliest stages of the next presidential contest take shape, their actions made clear that choosing to serve Trump and his political interests remains a focus for the party.

If President Trump decides hes running, absolutely the RNC needs to back him, 100%, said Michelle Fiore, an RNC committeewoman who has represented Nevada since 2018. We can change the bylaws.

The loyalty to Trump is a fresh reminder that one of Americas major political parties is deepening its alignment with a figure who is undermining the nations democratic principles. As he fought to stay in the White House, Trump sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. More recently, he has explicitly said that former Vice President Mike Pence could and should have overturned the election results, something he had no power to do.

Away from the ballrooms of the RNC meeting, Pence rebuked Trump on Friday, saying he had no right to overturn the election and that his former boss was wrong to suggest otherwise.

Pence is one of a few Republicans making moves toward a 2024 campaign regardless of whether Trump wages a comeback bid. If he were to run for the White House again, Trump is such a powerful force with the GOP base that he probably wouldnt need the partys help to become the nominee.

Some Republicans said thats beside the point.

Theres probably some disagreement there, said Bruce Hough, a longtime RNC member from Utah who lost to a Trump ally in a race for party co-chair last year. The RNC has to provide a level playing field for any and all comers for president. Thats our job. Thats what we have to do.

But a stark divide has emerged between veterans like Hough, who are devoted to the GOP as an institution, and a larger group of Trump-aligned newcomers, who argue theyre bringing new energy to the party. Their chief loyalty, however, seems to be to the former president.

Leading up to 2020, or most of the time Trump was in office, he sent around his minions to populate the committee with very loyal Trump folks in a lot of red states, said Bill Palatucci, an RNC committeeman from New Jersey and frequent Trump critic. And they still enjoy that strong majority.

The RNCs continued embrace of Trump more than two years before the 2024 election is a decided shift from the partys position in past elections.

In 2012 and 2016, for example, Reince Priebus as RNC chair went to great lengths to ensure each of the candidates was treated equally. The party sanctioned 12 debates, including early rounds that featured up to 17 candidates.

Clearly, theres a bias that didnt exist in the past, said Tim Miller, who previously worked for the Republican National Committee and has since emerged as a fierce Trump critic. Its all Trump all the time coming out of there.

A year ago, just after President Joe Bidens inauguration, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declined to encourage Trump to run again when asked, citing party rules that require neutrality. She also discouraged attacks on those Republicans who voted for Trumps impeachment.

This week, however, she backed an effort by Trump loyalists to censure Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a move triggered almost entirely by their fight against Trumps enduring influence in the party beyond the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The censure, which passed on a voice vote Friday, says the two support Democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022.

McDaniels shift coincides with the RNCs reliance on Trump for fundraising. The party has issued hundreds of fundraising appeals since Trump left office evoking his name. One offered this message to prospective small-dollar donors on Tuesday: YOU must stand with President Trump and YOUR Party.

In speeches made minutes before party leaders voted to censure Cheney and Kinzinger, McDaniel and co-chair Tommy Hicks did not mention Trump and stressed the need to unify for the 2022 midterm elections.

Though the committees moves demonstrated a sustained loyalty to the former president, outside the winter meeting the censure was condemned by opponents as divisive and contrary to frequent appeals from leaders to expand the partys tent.

The RNCs discipline shows more about them than us, Kinzinger said in an interview. It shows that Trump and Trumpism has overtaken the RNC.

Cheney in a statement said the move demonstrated how the party had become hostage to Trump.

Indeed, this weeks focus on debates that wont take place until 2024 and on anti-Trump Republicans overshadowed the partys preparations for the midterm elections. Thats notable because the GOP could reclaim control of at least one chamber of Congress and several governors mansions.

But this week, Trumps grievances with his Republican critics took center stage instead.

We should be focused on what the voters are focused on, said Caleb Heimlich, chair of the Republican Party in Washington state, where two of three House members voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection. Ive been talking to voters in Washington state, traveling around and nobody talks about Cheney. Thats a D.C. topic.

Others disagreed.

Harmeet Dhillon, an RNC committeewoman from California, said it was imperative to send a clear message about Cheney and Kinzinger for her and the legions of volunteers working to elect Republicans this year.

The midterms are about a party electing its leaders, and what Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney did here is defy their partys leadership, Dhillon said. I do not want to elect people in the midterms who do what these two did.

Beyond the censure, Republicans set in motion a rules change rooted in another of Trumps longstanding grievances. A measure advanced that would force presidential candidates to sign a pledge saying they will not participate in any debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates advanced. It is expected to be voted on when RNC members convene again in August.

We are not walking away from debates, McDaniel said. We are walking away from the Commission on Presidential Debates because its a biased monopoly that does not serve the best interests of the American people.

The eventual 2024 nominee, however, will have final say on whether to participate.

Another Republican eyeing a White House campaign, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, decried the RNCs push to punish Trumps rivals.

The GOP I believe in is the party of freedom and truth, the frequent Trump critic tweeted Friday. Its a sad day for my party and the country when youre punished just for expressing your beliefs, standing on principle, and refusing to tell blatant lies.

___

Peoples reported from New York.

Read this article:

Trump's GOP: Party further tightens tie to former president - Associated Press