The Florida GOP Candidate That Beats Joe Biden: A Reply to McDaniel in the White House, and to Kristina Karamo
The chair of the Republican National Committee said on Sunday that if the GOP presidential candidates do not back their nominee, they won’t be allowed to participate in the debate.
“You want to make sure you have people on the debate stage who are running for president. We don’t want people who are running for book deals, or media contracts, or Cabinet positions,” she said.
Former President Donald Trump and former US Ambassador to the United NationsNikki Haley are both Republicans who have launched presidential bids, but many other people are signaling interest. Among others are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was Donald Trump’s Secretary of State when he was in office.
After his reelection win last November in Florida, many of the party figures felt that he represented the spirit of Trump without the indiscipline and scandal that followed the ex-president. The Florida governor has adopted Trump’s pugilistic partisan style, telling Fox News host Mark Levin on Sunday that he had made “the Democratic Party in our state, basically, a rotten carcass on the side of the street.”
The primary is still in its early stages, and it could take months before the field fully rounds into form and candidates make more than occasional visits to states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which will kick off the GOP’s nominating process.
“We can’t be attacking each other so much that we lose sight of: We have to beat the Democrats. We need to beat Joe Biden in 24 years. In the end, we have to settle our differences of opinion, but more importantly we have to do the right things for our country because we have divisive primaries and differences of opinion.
Asked Sunday about compelling certain White House hopefuls who have broken with party leaders – such as former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson – to sign a loyalty pledge, McDaniel offered: “I think you support the voters.”
Donald Trump appointed my aunt to the RNC. And I would support both of them … if they were the nominee of our party over Joe Biden. But I don’t know if they would support each other,” she said.
Republicans in her home state of Michigan chose Kristina Karamo as their state party chair, and she was asked about it. Karamo has falsely claimed that Trump won the state in the 2020 election, and she has yet to concede her loss in last year’s race for Michigan secretary of state.
The End of the GOP? Observational Challenges for the Ex-President Donald Trump During a Third Candidate Campaign
GOP leaders are sending warnings that they want former President Donald Trump to play by the rules and put his party above his own interests as he embarks on a third campaign – that is, to behave in a way he rarely, if ever, has before.
Despite a recent poll showing that enthusiasm for the former president is not what it used to be, he responded with his usual arrogance on Sunday. A Trump campaign spokesperson told CNN that the president would support the republican nominee because he was the one.
The question of whether the president would support a nominee other than himself is very relevant because of some early signs that he might not hold onto his party’s power as he once did. Since he launched it last fall, his campaign has not caught fire. Recent polls show that in a race against Trump, the GOP candidate is close to the president even if other candidates like Haley and Mike Pence don’t fare as well.
Yet Trump’s intervention in last year’s midterm elections, when many of his election-denying acolytes lost in swing states and helped to quell a Republican red wave, highlighted how his own priorities may diverge from his party’s. When the Republicans lost the House, the Senate, and the White House in a row, they blamed Trump for alienating suburban voters, and fell short of expectations. Some top GOP donors have argued that it’s time for the party to move on from a candidate who could endanger their chances of defeating Joe Biden in the reelection race. It remains to be seen if this view is shared among Trump’s longtime base.
There were questions about whether or not Trump would back the man if he beat him in the election.
It would be a nightmare scenario for the GOP if Trump were to lose the party’s nominating contest next year but spend the general election railing against the party’s presidential pick. Even small defections among Trump’s devoted grassroots political base could be critical in the kind of swing state races that decided the last two presidential elections.
Trump acts as if he is entitled to his third consecutive spot at the top of the Republican Party’s presidential ticket. But that assumption will face a new test this week when DeSantis, whom Trump has already accused of disloyalty for considering a White House run, promotes and releases a new book in a rite of passage for potential presidential candidates.
Trump has also lashed out at Nikki Haley, who served as his ambassador to the United Nations and has launched a 2024 bid rooted in calls for a new generation of American political leadership. Both Trump and Haley are scheduled to speak at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, DC. There are some events that he is attending in Texas and California.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/politics/trump-gop-2024-loyalty-pledge/index.html
Defending Hillary Clinton with a Box in the Crowd: How Will the Ex-President and DeSantis Ruin the Republican Party in 2020?
While requiring debate candidates to sign a pledge to support the nominee would be a show of party unity and would, in effect, be an attempt to box Trump in, it would hardly be enforceable should the ex-president not win the nomination. Given that Trump already falsely claimed the 2020 general election, which he lost fair and square, was marred by voter fraud, it’s hardly far-fetched to believe he may trash any nomination process that he doesn’t win.
“I think they all want to be on the debate stage. I think President Trump would like to be on the debate stage. Bash was told that he liked to do that.
The RNC head, who just won her own contested reelection, also warned that the GOP has lost big races in the midterms “because of Republicans refusing to support other Republicans. We will not win in 2020 unless we fix this in our party.
Still, McDaniel’s message on Sunday shows the depth of party concern that an untamed Trump could again severely impair the Republican Party’s hopes of winning the White House and control of Congress.
It remains a question, however, how DeSantis would stand up to Trump’s searing attacks on a debate stage. Many former governors are once vaunted candidates. Jeb Bush of Florida and Scott Walker of Wisconsin – have looked strong in theory, only to see their campaigns flame out when they hit the trail.