Republicans urge Trump to avoid fanning flames of GOP civil war
WASHINGTON – As former President Donald Trump is set to reassert himself as the leader of his party this weekend, Republicans are pushing him to opt for a message of unity over further dividing an already fractured GOP.
Whether or not Republicans are fully comfortable with that role for him, they are hopeful that Trump will be a constructive force in their efforts to wrest back control of Congress – as long as he can resist the urge to relentlessly attack members of his own party.
GOP officials and strategists across the country will be closely watching Trump’s first major address since leaving office at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on
Sunday, looking for signs of whether he is more interested in seeking vengeance against Republicans who have crossed him or helping the party coalesce against their common opponents: President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress.
They say where Trump – who still holds firm control over the GOP base after his defeat – chooses to place the lion’s share of his focus over the next two years will be a critical factor in determining if the party will win majorities in the U.S. House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections, or remain shut out of power in Washington.
“The question becomes how much firepower does he train on fellow Republicans versus Democrats?” said Neil Newhouse, a leading GOP pollster. “The more he’s able to get his voters out to support Republicans, the better we do. The more he pushes a grudge against other Republicans, that’s more challenging for the party.”
One person familiar with Trump’s CPAC speech said it will likely touch on the GOP’S internal divisions as well as criticisms of Democrats, but didn’t say how much time would be dedicated to each area.
“Overall it’s going to be: The president is the leader of the Republican Party and his issue set and his agenda are the values that the overwhelming majority of Republican voters share and embrace,” said the source, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the speech-writing process. “And he’s going to lay out the working-class vision that Republicans are going to need to seize on to be successful moving forward.”
Midterm elections typically present a favorable political environment for the party that’s out of power, especially in a president’s first term. And with
an evenly divided Senate and Democrats holding a narrow 10-seat majority in the House, Republicans believe they are wellpositioned heading into 2022.
But former presidents usually don’t remain as involved in party politics as Trump appears poised to be. He has set up a political action committee, pledged to endorse candidates he aligns with in primary elections and left the door open to running for president again in 2024.
And the long-term political ramifications of Trump being impeached, but acquitted, over his role in the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol
riot are largely unknown.
While the last four years revealed the limits of Trump’s appeal – suburban, college-educated and female voters abandoned the GOP in droves – they also showed that no other figure is as effective in motivating the party’s base of white working-class, rural and evangelical voters.
Starting with his CPAC speech, Republican operatives say Trump can play an important role in casting the 2022 election as a referendum on Biden’s administration and Democratic control of Congress rather than on the GOP’S loyalty to Trump.
“Trump will continue to cast a long shadow over the party, and Republican
candidates are going to have to be able to adapt to be viable,” said Ken Spain, a former National Republican Congressional Committee aide. “It could lead to historic gains, but it could also lead to historic division.”
The divide over Trump among Republican leaders has been on full display in the lead-up to CPAC. Asked at a news conference on Wednesday whether Trump should speak at the conference, House GOP leader Kevin Mccarthy of California said he should. But Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last month, bluntly disagreed.
“I don’t believe that he
should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country,” Cheney said.
Meanwhile, Senate GOP leader Mitch Mcconnell of Kentucky and Trump have publicly traded barbs since the impeachment trial and pledged to wade into upcoming Republican primary battles, which could put them further at odds as the election cycle progresses.
But Mcconnell, who did not receive an invitation to speak at CPAC this year, said he still would support Trump if he was the GOP presidential nominee in 2024 during an appearance on Fox News Thursday night, though he added that it was a wide open race.