As President Donald Trump prepares to leave office with his party in disarray, Republican leaders including Sen. Mitch McConnell are maneuvering to thwart his grip on the GOP in future elections, while forces aligned with Trump are looking to punish Republican lawmakers and governors who have broken with him.
The bitter infighting underscores the deep divisions that Trump has created in the GOP and all but ensures that the next campaign will represent a pivotal test of the party’s direction, with a series of clashes looming in the months ahead.
The friction is already escalating in several key swing states in the aftermath of Trump’s incitement of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. They include Arizona, where Trump-aligned activists are seeking to censure the Republican governor they deem insufficiently loyal to the president, and Georgia, where a hard-right faction wants to defeat the current governor in a primary election.
In Washington, Republicans are particularly concerned about a handful of extreme-right House members who could run for Senate in swing states, potentially tarnishing the party in some of the most politically important areas of the country. McConnell’s political lieutenants envision a large-scale campaign to block such candidates from winning primaries in crucial states.
But Trump’s political cohort appears no less determined, and his allies in the states have been laying the groundwork to take on Republican officials who voted to impeach Trump — or who merely acknowledged the plain reality that President-elect Joe Biden won the presidential race.
Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, right, and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, two Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump, exchange a high five at the Capitol on Jan. 13, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)
Republicans on both sides of the conflict are acknowledging openly that they are headed for a showdown.
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“Hell yes, we are,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.
Kinzinger was equally blunt when asked how he and other anti-Trump Republicans could dilute the president’s clout in primaries.
“We beat him,” he said.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger has battled Trump and his fellow Republicans. In deep blue Illinois, could that be a strategy for higher office? »
The highest-profile tests of Trump’s clout may come in two sparsely populated Western states, South Dakota and Wyoming, where the president has targeted a pair of GOP leaders: John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, and Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican.
[The latest] After US Capitol attack, some Republican Party officials are adopting war talk long used by far-right extremists, white supremacists »
“I suspect we will see a lot of that activity in the next couple of years out there for some of our members, myself included,” said Thune, adding that he and others would have to “play the hand you’re dealt.”
He may face less political peril than Cheney, who, in voting to impeach Trump, said that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a president.” The Wyoming Republican Party said it had been inundated with calls and messages from voters fuming about her decision.
Trump has talked to advisers about his contempt for Cheney in the days since the vote and expressed his glee about the backlash she is enduring in her home state.
Privately, Republican officials are concerned about possible campaigns for higher office by some of the high-profile backbenchers in the House who have railed against the election results and propagated fringe conspiracy theories. Among those figures are Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Andy Biggs of Arizona. All three states have Senate seats and governorships up for election in 2022.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shows off her "Stop the Steal" mask during a photo opportunity with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for new congress members on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 4, 2021. In the days before the Capitol riot, some Republican lawmakers, including Greene, fanned the flames with bellicose and false rhetoric about a stolen election. (Anna Moneymaker / The New York Times)
Just as striking, a number of mainline conservatives in the House are speaking openly about how much Trump damaged himself in the aftermath of the election, culminating with his role in inspiring the riots.
[The latest] After US Capitol attack, some Republican Party officials are adopting war talk long used by far-right extremists, white supremacists »
“The day after the election, that question of leadership was unquestionably in one person’s hands, and each week that has gone past, he has limited himself, sadly, based off his own actions,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who predicted that rank-and-file voters would come to share his unease after they fully absorbed the Capitol riot.
Trump has vowed a campaign of political retribution against lawmakers who have crossed him — a number that has grown with the impeachment vote. The president remains hugely popular with the party’s grassroots and is most likely capable of raising enough money to be a disruptive force in 2022.
Scott Reed, the former chief political strategist for the Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobby, said that Republicans should prepare for a ferocious internecine battle. Reed, who as an ally of McConnell’s helped crush right-wing populists in past elections, said the party establishment would have to exploit divisions within Trump’s faction to guide its favored candidates into power.
“In 2022, we’ll be faced with the Trump pitchfork crowd, and there will need to be an effort to beat them back,” Reed said. “Hopefully they’ll create multicandidate races where their influence will be diluted.”
Reps. Liz Cheney and Jamie Raskin, a Democratic House impeachment manager, speak to one another at the Capitol on Jan. 12, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)
An early test for the party is expected in the coming days, with Trump loyalists attempting to strip Cheney of her House leadership role. Should that effort prove successful, it could further indicate to voters and donors that the party’s militant wing is in control — a potentially alarming signal to more traditional Republicans in the business community.
[The latest] Trump’s Senate trial pending, Mitch McConnell tells Republican senators it’s a ‘vote of conscience’ »
Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, has acknowledged to political donors in recent days that the departing president and some members of his faction have seriously damaged the party’s relationship with big business, people familiar with his conversations said.
If Cheney is deposed, it could encourage primary challenges against other Republicans who supported impeachment or censure, including more moderate lawmakers like Reps. Peter Meijer and Fred Upton of Michigan and John Katko of New York, whose districts could slip away from Republicans if they nominated hard-line Trump loyalists. But in a sign that Trump cannot expect to fully dictate party affairs, McCarthy has indicated that he opposes calls to remove her from leadership.
William Oberndorf, an influential Republican donor who gave $2.5 million to McConnell’s super political action committee, the Senate Leadership Fund, in the 2020 election, said that donors should be closely watching the impeachment votes as they formulate their plans for giving. A longtime critic of Trump, Oberndorf said it had been a mistake for the party not to oust Trump during his first impeachment trial last year.
“They now have a chance to address this egregious mistake and make sure Donald Trump will never be able to run for public office again,” Oberndorf said. “Republican donors should be paying attention to how our elected officials vote on this matter.”
It is not yet clear how widely the party leadership might embrace a no-new-Trumps strategy, and there are strong indications that the Republican base might react with fury to any explicit effort to relegate the former president to the political dustbin. In a vexing complication for Senate leaders, the chair of their campaign committee, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has spoken critically of impeachment and opposed certifying Pennsylvania’s election results — a vote that could undermine his ability to raise funds from big donors.
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The bitter infighting underscores the deep divisions that Trump has created in the GOP and all but ensures that the next campaign will represent a pivotal test of the party’s direction, with a series of clashes looming in the months ahead.
The friction is already escalating in several key swing states in the aftermath of Trump’s incitement of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. They include Arizona, where Trump-aligned activists are seeking to censure the Republican governor they deem insufficiently loyal to the president, and Georgia, where a hard-right faction wants to defeat the current governor in a primary election.
In Washington, Republicans are particularly concerned about a handful of extreme-right House members who could run for Senate in swing states, potentially tarnishing the party in some of the most politically important areas of the country. McConnell’s political lieutenants envision a large-scale campaign to block such candidates from winning primaries in crucial states.
But Trump’s political cohort appears no less determined, and his allies in the states have been laying the groundwork to take on Republican officials who voted to impeach Trump — or who merely acknowledged the plain reality that President-elect Joe Biden won the presidential race.
Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, right, and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, two Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump, exchange a high five at the Capitol on Jan. 13, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)
Republicans on both sides of the conflict are acknowledging openly that they are headed for a showdown.
sored Content by Bristol Myers Squibb
“Hell yes, we are,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump.
Kinzinger was equally blunt when asked how he and other anti-Trump Republicans could dilute the president’s clout in primaries.
“We beat him,” he said.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger has battled Trump and his fellow Republicans. In deep blue Illinois, could that be a strategy for higher office? »
The highest-profile tests of Trump’s clout may come in two sparsely populated Western states, South Dakota and Wyoming, where the president has targeted a pair of GOP leaders: John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, and Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican.
[The latest] After US Capitol attack, some Republican Party officials are adopting war talk long used by far-right extremists, white supremacists »
“I suspect we will see a lot of that activity in the next couple of years out there for some of our members, myself included,” said Thune, adding that he and others would have to “play the hand you’re dealt.”
He may face less political peril than Cheney, who, in voting to impeach Trump, said that “there has never been a greater betrayal by a president.” The Wyoming Republican Party said it had been inundated with calls and messages from voters fuming about her decision.
Trump has talked to advisers about his contempt for Cheney in the days since the vote and expressed his glee about the backlash she is enduring in her home state.
Privately, Republican officials are concerned about possible campaigns for higher office by some of the high-profile backbenchers in the House who have railed against the election results and propagated fringe conspiracy theories. Among those figures are Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Andy Biggs of Arizona. All three states have Senate seats and governorships up for election in 2022.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shows off her "Stop the Steal" mask during a photo opportunity with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for new congress members on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 4, 2021. In the days before the Capitol riot, some Republican lawmakers, including Greene, fanned the flames with bellicose and false rhetoric about a stolen election. (Anna Moneymaker / The New York Times)
Just as striking, a number of mainline conservatives in the House are speaking openly about how much Trump damaged himself in the aftermath of the election, culminating with his role in inspiring the riots.
[The latest] After US Capitol attack, some Republican Party officials are adopting war talk long used by far-right extremists, white supremacists »
“The day after the election, that question of leadership was unquestionably in one person’s hands, and each week that has gone past, he has limited himself, sadly, based off his own actions,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who predicted that rank-and-file voters would come to share his unease after they fully absorbed the Capitol riot.
Trump has vowed a campaign of political retribution against lawmakers who have crossed him — a number that has grown with the impeachment vote. The president remains hugely popular with the party’s grassroots and is most likely capable of raising enough money to be a disruptive force in 2022.
Scott Reed, the former chief political strategist for the Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobby, said that Republicans should prepare for a ferocious internecine battle. Reed, who as an ally of McConnell’s helped crush right-wing populists in past elections, said the party establishment would have to exploit divisions within Trump’s faction to guide its favored candidates into power.
“In 2022, we’ll be faced with the Trump pitchfork crowd, and there will need to be an effort to beat them back,” Reed said. “Hopefully they’ll create multicandidate races where their influence will be diluted.”
Reps. Liz Cheney and Jamie Raskin, a Democratic House impeachment manager, speak to one another at the Capitol on Jan. 12, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times)
An early test for the party is expected in the coming days, with Trump loyalists attempting to strip Cheney of her House leadership role. Should that effort prove successful, it could further indicate to voters and donors that the party’s militant wing is in control — a potentially alarming signal to more traditional Republicans in the business community.
[The latest] Trump’s Senate trial pending, Mitch McConnell tells Republican senators it’s a ‘vote of conscience’ »
Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, has acknowledged to political donors in recent days that the departing president and some members of his faction have seriously damaged the party’s relationship with big business, people familiar with his conversations said.
If Cheney is deposed, it could encourage primary challenges against other Republicans who supported impeachment or censure, including more moderate lawmakers like Reps. Peter Meijer and Fred Upton of Michigan and John Katko of New York, whose districts could slip away from Republicans if they nominated hard-line Trump loyalists. But in a sign that Trump cannot expect to fully dictate party affairs, McCarthy has indicated that he opposes calls to remove her from leadership.
William Oberndorf, an influential Republican donor who gave $2.5 million to McConnell’s super political action committee, the Senate Leadership Fund, in the 2020 election, said that donors should be closely watching the impeachment votes as they formulate their plans for giving. A longtime critic of Trump, Oberndorf said it had been a mistake for the party not to oust Trump during his first impeachment trial last year.
“They now have a chance to address this egregious mistake and make sure Donald Trump will never be able to run for public office again,” Oberndorf said. “Republican donors should be paying attention to how our elected officials vote on this matter.”
It is not yet clear how widely the party leadership might embrace a no-new-Trumps strategy, and there are strong indications that the Republican base might react with fury to any explicit effort to relegate the former president to the political dustbin. In a vexing complication for Senate leaders, the chair of their campaign committee, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has spoken critically of impeachment and opposed certifying Pennsylvania’s election results — a vote that could undermine his ability to raise funds from big donors.
Are Republicans headed for a pro-Trump, anti-Trump civil war? ‘Hell yes, we are,’ says Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger.
Bitter infighting underscores the deep divisions that Trump has created in the GOP and all but ensures that the next campaign will represent a pivotal test of the party’s direction
