Republican leaders want a show of unity. Will Trump allow it?

[webfact]

Republican leaders want a show of unity. Will Trump allow it?

By David Morgan

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual meeting at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., February 29, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The next few days will give Republicans opportunities to stand together or fight among themselves, first when the House of Representatives votes on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus package on Friday and again when Donald Trump retakes the global spotlight in a speech to the party's most conservative members.

 

The Republican leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives - Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy - have focused on rallying their caucuses against Democratic President Joe Biden's massive bill and away from internal hostilities over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and former President Trump's impeachment.

 

But those efforts could prove hard to maintain when Trump speaks to the Conservative Political Action Committee on Sunday and likely wades into the party's efforts retake congressional majorities in 2022.

 

The potential for distraction was on full display at a Wednesday press conference, where House Republican leaders sought to blast the Democratic coronavirus bill.

 

Reporters used the opportunity to ask if leaders thought Trump should take the spotlight just two months after his supporters launched a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol to press the former president's false claim that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

 

"Yes, he should," McCarthy replied. But Representative Liz Cheney, the most senior of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection, was quick to contradict that view.

 

"I don't believe that he should be playing a role in the future of the party or the country," said Cheney, who survived an effort by Trump loyalists to oust her as conference chair for backing impeachment.

 

The struggle between the pro-Trump and anti-Trump arms of the Republican Party is a lopsided one.

 

Trump has already lashed out at his most senior Republican critic, McConnell, who called Trump "practically and morally responsible" for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that killed five including a police officer.

 

"Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again," Trump shot back last week.

 

McConnell has since tried to move on from discussing Trump, telling reporters: "What you need to focus on is how unified we are today in opposition to what the Biden administration is trying to do."

 

What's less clear is if Trump wants to move on. Many of the 10 House Republicans who backed his Jan. 13 impeachment are facing potential primary election challenges for 2022, when control of both chambers of Congress will be at stake.

 

MIDTERM WILD CARD

Trump has expressed a desire to make those lawmakers pay by supporting their primary challengers, according to a Trump adviser. That could make him a wild card in both the 2022 election as well as the run-up to the 2024 presidential contest.

 

Trump has said he would consider running again, and the possibility alone will complicate plans for other potential Republican presidential contenders, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President Mike Pence.

 

Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the Senate Republican campaign arm known as the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he was confident Trump would be a team player.

 

"I told him I want to win in '22 and said I'm going to be very specific of where I think he could be helpful, and he gets to make the decision whether he wants to do it or not," Scott said, though Trump has long shown a willingness to defy advice.

 

The Republican National Committee estimates that more than 25 million voters have been drawn to the party since Trump won the presidency in 2016. Trump's backers note he drew 74 million votes, more than any other Republican candidate in history, though that number was dwarfed by the 81 million people who voted for Biden in the record-setting November election.

 

Trump's vote numbers may make it difficult for the party to turn its back on him even if it wanted to.

 

"President Trump and populism are very much in the great majority of our party, and people like myself, who are more traditional conservatives, are a very small minority," Senator Mitt Romney, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of inciting insurrection this month told reporters.

 

Some of Trump's supporters were eager to fan the flames of conflict this week.

 

"The Establishment GOP wants to go back to forever wars, bad trade deals, and caravans crashing across our borders. We're not going back," Republican Representative Matt Gaetz said on Twitter. He urged Trump to run again in 2024.

 

(Reporting by David Morgan, additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Steve Holland; Editing by Scott Malone)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-26

 

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[bendejo]

Old saying in US politics regarding presidential candidates is "Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line."  Looks like the line forms at a certain Florida country club.

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by bendejo

[Berkshire]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the Senate Republican campaign arm known as the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he was confident Trump would be a team player.

55555....don't these Republicans ever get it?  With Trump, there is no such thing as a team.  It's about him and nothing else matters.

[Kelsall]

President Trump's upcoming speech at CPAC should shed some light on the answer to that question.

[Chomper Higgot]

1 minute ago, Kelsall said:

President Trump's upcoming speech at CPAC should shed some light on the answer to that question.

Trump’s title is Mr President, it is a courtesy,  he is not ‘President Trump’.

 

 

[bendejo]

4 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Trump’s title is Mr President, it is a courtesy,  he is not ‘President Trump’.

 

Please refer to him as former president.  He goes ballistic when he hears it.  Perhaps "twice-impeached former president" would be better, in underlines how unique his presidency was.

 

 

[Bluespunk]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Senator Rick Scott, who chairs the Senate Republican campaign arm known as the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said he was confident Trump would be a team player.

Then Scott is seriously deluded.
 

trump only plays for team trump. 

[Kelsall]

18 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Trump’s title is Mr President, it is a courtesy,  he is not ‘President Trump’.

 

 

From the OP, note the first two words.      ""President Trump and populism are very much in the great majority of our party, and people like myself, who are more traditional conservatives, are a very small minority," Senator Mitt Romney, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of inciting insurrection this month told reporters."

[bendejo]

3 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Then Scott is seriously deluded.
 

trump only plays for team trump. 

Scott is a frontline bootlick, so is Gaetz.   It's like Susan Collins saying DT learned his lesson after the first impeachment. 

 

Do bear in mind Rick Scott has his eye on being president someday.  He is a spineless yes-man, takes orders from the party without a blink.

[Thakkar]

24 minutes ago, bendejo said:

 

Please refer to him as former president.  He goes ballistic when he hears it.  Perhaps "twice-impeached former president" would be better, in underlines how unique his presidency was.

 

 

Former porn star bareback rider. 
Because, while he did occupy the office, he really didn’t do much presidenting. Unless one considers a bull in a china shop to be the shop manager.

[spidermike007]

His base has been dwindling since the election. Alot of conservative friends and family I have been speaking with, agree Biden won, and the fraud thing is a bit much, and a sure sign of a sore loser. I think the DC fiasco backfired for sure, and he lost alot of his "middle of the road, sensible, hard working, decent people" base. In addition to nearly the entire GOP establishment, which he had wrapped around his finger. It was an enormous miscalculation, and an act of sheer desperation by an unhinged madman. Now, with the permanent ban on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, he is almost a zero. Almost. I predict his influence will continue to wane, now that he was rather ingloriously ushered out of the white house in humiliation. 

I think what FB and Twitter did was glorious, wise, and upholds the republic. I never in a million years thought Dorsey or Zuckerberg would have the guts to do this. Good on them!

He still has alot of extremists as supporters. And some in the mainstream. I consider their sense of patriotism to be displaced. If they were asked to fight, and put their blood on the line, they would cower into their basements, just like their leader, and the other seditious senators, who refused to show up at the Trump capital riots. Trump really attracted alot of the disenfranchised out there, and fringe element individuals to his cause, with his lies about being an outsider, his clever slogans like draining the swamp, build the wall, get rid of corruption, and being willing to stop listening to lobbyists. Quite the contrary, I think there was never a lobbyist that visited him, that he said no to, other than any who represented environmental interests, and were foolish enough to waste their time with him. He tested the slogans in advance, to see how his followers responded to them at rallies! As spontaneous as it all appeared, it was all a rather rehearsed bit of Trump theatre. 

Nearly anything with Trump's name on it, and his association with it, fails. And that will be even more so, now what the loser has left the White House. His name will remain radioactive, the the rest of his life, and the mini empire will continue to dwindle. He lost 17 major businesses. He lost 19 merchandising deals, since being elected. He lost the trade war with China, and the negotiations with Kim. He lost the presidential election, lost more than 60 legal challenges to the result, lost his bid to overturn the electoral college, lost control of the Senate and lost an impeachment trial 43-57, though he was spared conviction on a technicality. The supreme court rejected an attempt by his lawyers to block Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney (DA) in New York, from enforcing a subpoena to obtain eight years of his personal and corporate tax records. Ultimately, nobody likes a loser. And Trump has re-defined what losing means. 

The GOP senate will do anything to avoid losing those potential 74 million votes. Integrity, honor, courage, grace, patriotism? All missing. Hedging their bets, over doing the right thing?

Corporate America is adding its weight in response to the insurgency at the Capitol building on January 6, and are pulling out from any association with the Trump brand after the storming of the capitol incidentwhich economists say will have a profound medium and long-term effect on his business interests. Recently, Signature Bank closed Trump’s personal accounts and the PGA of America stopped plans to hold its 2022 championship at Mr. Trump’s New Jersey golf course. Such a parting of ways signals the business community’s weariness in being associated with a political figure that has attracted worldwide attention and is indicative of what may happen to the Trump brand. The president’s role in the incident, confirmed by his impeachment by the House this week, has gained criticism from the Business Roundtable to the AFL-CIO labour federation. Marketing experts like Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, say Trump’s brand will inevitably suffer long-term.

“Before his term, Trump stood for wealth, success and over-the-top luxury. Now the brand has associations with anti-government views, racism and extremism. This makes the brand fairly toxic.”

 

https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2021/01/17/trump-brand-tarnished-after-bruising-presidency-and-capitol-attack-.html

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55652310

 

Corporations will continue to shun him, for the rest of his sorry life. No more management deals, ever. People claim he profited from the presidency. I think the opposite is true. It ruined him. 
 

Let us hope his brand continues to diminish, his name continues to spiral into oblivion, his empire continues to dwindle, and his family continues to become less relevant by the day. I do not wish ill on many people. However, after four years of human wrecking ball behavior, chaos, the spread of Covid (which could have been largely contained in the US, had he been a responsible leader and citizen), the destructive trade war with China, his losses with Kim and Putin, countless foreign policy blunders, his sycophantic behavior with the murderous MBS, and his continual upheaval, the fake law and order nonsense, the fake electoral fraud nonsense, his lack of loyalty to his nation, and his efforts to start both a civil and a cultural war, I do not have any kind feelings towards this man, or his family, and do not wish them well, on any level. I am thrilled he is gone. There is an adult leading America now. A capable man of dignity, kindness, generosity of spirit, and grace.

Considering the fact that it appears he had been losing money for a very, very long time now, it is going to be a hard road for him and his family. No investors, no more bank loans, toxic real estate (unless he changes the names, and removes his name from the property and people forget, which is unlikely) and hopefully great legal peril face him now. He deserves all of that misery.

[jvs]

47 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

From the OP, note the first two words.      ""President Trump and populism are very much in the great majority of our party, and people like myself, who are more traditional conservatives, are a very small minority," Senator Mitt Romney, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of inciting insurrection this month told reporters."

If the OP jumps of a tall building you will follow suit also?

[Andy from Kent]

46 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

From the OP, note the first two words.      ""President Trump and populism are very much in the great majority of our party, and people like myself, who are more traditional conservatives, are a very small minority," Senator Mitt Romney, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of inciting insurrection this month told reporters."

 

Sorry.

 

#45 is the first USA president for whom I have no respect.

 

Those respecting this man clearly have  comprehension as well as vision problems. 

[Andy from Kent]

1 hour ago, Kelsall said:

President Trump's upcoming speech at CPAC should shed some light on the answer to that question.

 

Do you accept the fact that #45 clearly, fairly and decisively lost his bid for reelection.

 

He seems to fail to grasp that simple fact.   He could potentially end up in jail for that failure.

[Tug]

Awww he’s just going to play the victim card lie about the election and further ruin the once proud Republican party 

[Sujo]

2 hours ago, bendejo said:

 

Please refer to him as former president.  He goes ballistic when he hears it.  Perhaps "twice-impeached former president" would be better, in underlines how unique his presidency was.

 

 

Former billionaire.

[Andy from Kent]

2 hours ago, bendejo said:

 

Please refer to him as former president.  He goes ballistic when he hears it.  Perhaps "twice-impeached former president" would be better, in underlines how unique his presidency was.

 

 

 

 

The use of the  word president  and Mr. Trump should not be together.

 

He doesn't deserve the respect of  any of the other men  who have served in that office.

 

Like it or not,  #45 did all he could to subvert the democratic process and commit  sedition.   Only his money will save him from looking out from behind bars in a prison cell.

 

 

[candide]

1 hour ago, Sujo said:

Former billionaire.

And soon former free man! ????

[klauskunkel]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Senator Rick Scott said he was confident Trump would be a team player.

At long last Rick Scott found the elusive "I" in "team".

[vandeventer]

Ex-President Trump will sort out the weeds from the grass in no time. He will the leader of the party sooner than later. Just don't worry about the Republican's as they will shine. I would worry more about the Dems. as I hear over 30 Dems. don't want Biden to carry the Nuclear football. For once I would be on the side of the Dems. wouldn't you?

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by vandeventer

[Eric Loh]

12 minutes ago, vandeventer said:

Ex-President Trump will sort out the weeds from the grass in no time. He will the leader of the party sooner than later. Just don't worry about the Republican's as they will shine. I would worry more about the Dems. as I hear over 30 Dems. don't want Biden to carry the Nuclear football. For once I would be on the side of the Dems. wouldn't you?

 

 

I am glad the Dems brought this up. Biden is about freedom of expression. GOPs

will never have the courage to talk about this.  Modifying the decision making to launch nuclear weapons is a right move after witnessing the erratic and ill-discipline judgement of the former President Trump. 

 

[herfiehandbag]

4 hours ago, bendejo said:

 

Please refer to him as former president.  He goes ballistic when he hears it.  Perhaps "twice-impeached former president" would be better, in underlines how unique his presidency was.

 

 

I understand that he resides at what, in previous times was referred to by some as "the Southern White House".

 

"Twice impeached former one term president living (perhaps illegally) in what some once sycophantically referred to as the Southern White House" is a bit of a mouthful, but it is accurate - I can't see how he can object to that. Maybe it could be used in the "occupation" section of any future legal documents to be served on him (indictments, sub-poenas and so forth). It will serve to remind us of the respect which he deserves to be shown!

[vandeventer]

11 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

I am glad the Dems brought this up. Biden is about freedom of expression. GOPs

will never have the courage to talk about this.  Modifying the decision making to launch nuclear weapons is a right move after witnessing the erratic and ill-discipline judgement of the former President Trump. 

 

No president has handed this task over to the house. So with Nancy Pelosi as leader it may take weeks for a solution. And get your facts right I am only saying Biden should not have this job!

[Eric Loh]

12 minutes ago, vandeventer said:

No president has handed this task over to the house. So with Nancy Pelosi as leader it may take weeks for a solution. And get your facts right I am only saying Biden should not have this job!

Touchy today.

[SunnyinBangrak]

35 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Biden is about freedom of expression.

By censoring any disagreeing voices and free thinkers? How is that proving Biden is about the freedom of expression. It is the exact opposite of what you say.

[Nout]

5 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Trump’s title is Mr President, it is a courtesy,  he is not ‘President Trump’.

 

 

Should be though...and hopefully will be..LOL

[Eric Loh]

12 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

By censoring any disagreeing voices and free thinkers? How is that proving Biden is about the freedom of expression. It is the exact opposite of what you say.

He also fired and forced resignation of those who dissented. Oops that was Trump. My bad. Biden just the opposite. 

[Solinvictus]

How hypocritical can you get? I'm talking about the Republican Party. Slime as far as policy goes and the amount of division they sow. But on the wider scale of things anyone taking this seriously probably hasn't realized that both parties are in essence the same.

[Solinvictus]

3 minutes ago, Nout said:

Should be though...and hopefully will be..LOL

Nice. Could you give at least a few examples or reasons why? Nice.

[Solinvictus]

4 hours ago, Tug said:

Awww he’s just going to play the victim card lie about the election and further ruin the once proud Republican party 

That seems to be rampant among those supporting the Republican Party. How can anyone be naive regarding the history and traits of the Republican Party.

 

Notice how these same supporters & politicians never make progress for supporting the working class such as unions or upholding constitutional rights along with civil liberties? One must really have to be suckered to have faith in such a party, especially now after Trump's presidency. Real suckers, that's for sure.