Republican leaders divided on Trump’s influence in the party

Republican lawmakers debate former President Donald Trump’s future role in the party. Meanwhile, Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment conviction began a defiant counteroffensive against the threats thrown at them by the former president’s defende

Top Republicans sharply diverged Sunday over former President Donald Trump’s future influence in the party, and especially his role in Senate and House campaigns in 2022, following his acquittal in the impeachment trial.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina made a full-throated case for Trump as an essential player in the party in the coming Senate and House elections, saying “Trump-plus is the way back in 2022.” Another Republican, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, called the former president a waning force and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky indicated he might get involved in Republican races if Trumpbacked candidates put seats at risks.

There is no easy path forward for Republicans, including for Trump. On one level, his acquittal makes it easier for him to brazenly claim political vindication for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, remain a powerful force in the party, seek retribution against those who crossed him and run for the presidency again — an option he has not ruled out.

But on another level, he is profoundly damaged, perhaps the most disgraced American president in history, and with uncertain abilities to rally the party now that he lacks his Twitter bully pulpit and near-total fealty among Republican Senate

and House members (though many of them still back him). Graham, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” said that Trump was “ready to move on and rebuild the Republican Party,” adding that he planned to talk with Trump about the 2022 midterms soon over a game of golf in Florida.

Describing a Saturday night phone call with

Trump, Graham said: “I said Mr. President, this MAGA movement needs to continue. We need to unite the party. Trump-plus is the way back in 2022.” Graham claimed that the former president was “ready to hit the trail” to campaign for candidates, though Trump has told aides he would like to take a break for several months.

Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump on Saturday, painted a far different picture of Trump’s future. In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Cassidy said of the former president, “I think his force wanes,” and contended that more Republicans would come around in time to sharing his view of Trump’s guilt for the attack on the Capitol.

“The Republican Party is more than just one person,” he added. “The Republican Party is about ideas,” he said, arguing that the party’s candidates would rise or fall in the future on policy issues like the economy and COVID-19.

McConnell, the minority leader, crystallized some of the extreme straddling going on in the party by voting to acquit Trump on disputed technical grounds and then condemning him as responsible for inciting the attack. In an interview with Politico after the conviction vote, McConnell said Senate candidates in 2022 may have Trump’s backing or not, but “the only thing I care about is electability.”

“My goal is, in every way possible, to have nominees representing the Republican Party who can win in November,” McConnell said. He added: “I’m not predicting the president would support people who couldn’t win. But I do think electability — not who supports who

— is the critical point.”

How McConnell and Sen. Rick Scott, the Florida’s Republican who heads the party’s Senate campaign arm, navigate Trump is one of the big questions in 2022. Many Republican voters still see Trump as the leader of the party. Some senators see McConnell as the de facto leader, given his standing in the Senate and his ties to party donors. But McConnell has nowhere near Trump’s sway with the base, activists and leaders of many state GOP organizations. Graham, for his part, suggested that it was McConnell, not Trump, who could face an uncertain future if Republican candidates suffer in 2022, noting McConnell’s speech criticizing the former president.

“I would imagine if you’re a Republican running in Arizona or Georgia or New Hampshire, where we have a chance to take back the Senate, they may be playing Sen. McConnell’s speech and asking about it as a candidate,” Graham said. “I imagine if you’re an incumbent Republican, they’re going to be people asking you, ‘Will you support Sen.

McConnell in the future?’ “

Meanwhile, Republicans who supported the impeachment conviction of former President Donald Trump began a defiant counteroffensive Sunday against the threats thrown at them by Trump’s defenders, a sign that the divisions exposed in the Senate vote Saturday were deepening.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict the former president of inciting an insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6., sent out a blistering takedown of him — after Republicans from the party’s Trump wing promised to unseat her in 2022. “President Trump was not concerned about the Vice President; he was not concerned about members of Congress; he was not concerned about the Capitol Police,” she wrote in a statement on Twitter. “He was concerned about his election and retaining power.”

She added, “If months of lies, organizing a rally of supporters in an effort to thwart the work of Congress, encouraging a crowd to march on the Capitol, and then taking no meaningful action to stop the violence once it began is not worthy of impeachment, conviction, and disqualification from holding office in the United States, I cannot imagine what is.”

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a moderate Republican, defended the GOP senators who voted for conviction — Murkowski, Susan Collins of Maine, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. “I think there were a lot more people who didn’t have the courage to vote that way,” Hogan told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “But you’re right, there weren’t enough people willing to stand up.”

Two of the Republicans who stood up to Trump, Toomey and Burr, are not seeking reelection. The others, including Murkowski and Romney, have strong support in their states.

Hunting is not a sport. According to the nonprofit organization, Responsible Policies for Animals, “Claims by hunters, officials, and outdoors columnists that hunting is a sport have long caused segments of the public to accept that notion. Yet an activity is not necessarily a sport just because those who practice it claim it is or because authorities reinforce the notion.”

Hunters use dogs to rip animals to pieces while they are still alive and claim that to be sport. Hunters shoot themselves, each other, their friends and neighbors along with their animals but rarely pay any price for the harm they cause.

Many animals they shoot are only wounded then take days to die a horrifying, lingering death. This kind of depraved behavior is no longer needed in our society.

Hunters and anglers leave tons of trash. The garbage they discard traps animals, they suffocate and die hideous deaths.

There must be a better way to manage our beautiful wildlife and habitats than by letting people brutally torture and slaughter animals that do not need to die, while they discard tons of trash all over Florida in the process.

– Briar Lee Mitchell,

Wimauma