Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) could only hurt DeSantis, Haley and Christie by publicly rallying to their side. It’s a depressing indication of our polarized times that Sen. Unlike in 2016, however, those who feel strongest about the risk Trump poses may have the least ability to stop him. Except this time it will be utterly predictable. It will be a slow-rolling, Access Hollywood-style mess, pitting party leaders against their electoral base. Then the same question will be asked again if and when he’s sentenced to prison. Then, should Trump be found guilty of crimes, the same Republicans will be asked if they still support the nominee now that said standard-bearer is a felon. Republicans like Lankford are plainly unenthusiastic about Trump but will avoid weighing in on the primary and then when he wins the nomination offer some version of saying they’ll support the party’s nominee because that’s who the voters selected. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who repeatedly dodged questions about whether he’d back Trump by deferring to GOP primary voters. It was easy to glimpse the future from George Stephanopoulos’ interview on ABC’s “This Week” with Sen. A frustrated Sununu told me he knows even some of the governors “that are supporting don’t want him to be the nominee.” To borrow a memorable line from Bill Clinton, these Republicans want to maintain their viability within the system.īut it’s the quiet from so many of the party’s lawmakers, former candidates and biggest names that’s most revealing. Well, except for the capitulation from those who have misgivings about Trump but want to avoid the hassle of being pushed by his lieutenants, pressed by conservative media and harangued at their Lincoln Day dinners. There’s resignation, rationalization, despair and even denial. It’s just under a month until the Iowa caucuses and there’s a striking lack of urgency among Republicans who do not want to see Trump renominated. Oh, and Trump’s top alternatives would bicker with one another in most every debate and spend their negative advertising dollars on attacking one another rather than on targeting the former president.ĭisagree if you want, but, as the kids say, where’s the lie? Those GOP lawmakers who did step up to try to block Trump’s path wouldn’t coordinate their efforts, would disagree on who the best alternative is and thereby muddy their effort and undermine their mission.Īnd the lackluster field would, in the last full measure of their timidity, prove unable to rally to a single alternative because they were unwilling to summon the capaciousness necessary for the cause of stopping Trump. Republican officials who have little appetite for Trump’s return would stay mum and enable Trump’s comeback, each of them finding a rationale for their silence, some more compelling than others. (With apologies to John Kelly, a former general officer who is willing to speak out, a single and solo statement isn’t enough.) The senior officials who worked in Trump’s administration would mute themselves, disagree on whether to go public with their fears about a restoration or just not work in the coordinated, strategic and relentless fashion that’s needed to get through to voters. However, if one was to take brush to canvas for that impressionistic portrayal of how he did it, it would include the following. Trump’s enduring grip on them is why he’ll be so hard to defeat and why GOP leaders are so reluctant to cross him. For all the obsessive coverage about who wealthy GOP donors fancy, it’s Republican primary voters without college degrees who are the defining bloc in this race. Yet taken together, they illustrate why, as 2023 nears its close, the former president is poised to roll to the Republican nomination and could win back the White House. In isolation, none of these events are hugely significant. If Haley is serious about thwarting Trump, she needs to win the backing of her opponents and that means setting aside her resentment toward Scott - a perfunctory text isn’t sufficient - and having a serious conversation with Christie before they fracture the anti-Trump vote in New Hampshire. Tim Scott, or approach Chris Christie, people familiar with the situation tell me. She’s yet to call her former South Carolina rival, Sen. Speaking of being polite, I’ll get to the point. But for all the movement toward Haley in recent weeks, it remains to be seen whether she has the political dexterity and bigness of spirit to forge the disparate coalition needed to even threaten Trump. Sununu is widely expected to back Nikki Haley. (He was being polite: Sununu has privately been even more critical of Reynolds’ decision, I’m told.) Ron DeSantis and that he found her timing odd. Kim Reynolds didn’t give him a head’s up on her endorsement of Florida Gov. He told me he would back a Trump challenger in the next couple of weeks, but that Iowa Gov.
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