What did Cheney and Pelosi stand for in Congress when Trump was running for office? The lesson of Lyndon Johnson, Ben Carson, and David Youngkin
Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, was its obvious star, imbued with moral authority by the fact that she’d sacrificed her position in Republican leadership, and possibly her political career, to stand up to Donald Trump. There were many others.
When the speaker of the Arizona House wouldn’t help the former president subvert his state’s election results he was described as a portrait of rectitude. Cassidy Hutchinson was a top aide to the chief of staff and resisted attempts to intimidate her into saying that the president was crazy.
“When you look back at what has come out through this committee’s work, the most striking fact is that all this evidence comes almost entirely from Republicans,” the committee’s Democratic chairman, Bennie Thompson, said on Thursday.
The party’s single-minded pursuit of power is not new. It was the most significant feature of the last two decades of politics in Washington, a period when deals were made with the president who didn’t seem to share the moral codes of social and religious conservatives, but who delivered them a Supreme Court majority.
In winning the Virginia governor’s mansion last year, Youngkin adopted a subtle campaign strategy. By talking about the handling of gender issues in schools and referencing “election integrity,” the former businessman sent sufficient “Make America Great Again” messages to ensure turnout in pro-Trump rural counties. In the state’s more liberal Washington DC areas, parents of Covid-19 students were willing to listen to his education message.
Youngkin told all Republicans to get behind Lake, but also made it clear that he had to make a choice in order to have a future in the party.
There is nothing ostensibly wrong with a political party prioritizing a single-minded focus on winning power. Politics is the art of the possible. And successful parties and leaders understand election victories are paramount. Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton were both known to do what was needed to win, altering their own principles if necessary. Johnson, a former Senate majority leader, especially was ruthless in wielding his authority won at the ballot box. And more recently, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not dominated the House for nearly two decades without being determined to use her power.
For a party that once took pride in its heritage of promoting global democracy against tyranny, this is a striking leap. Republicans who defended such values, which were once prized in the party of Lincoln, against Trump – including Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake – were ostracized. Flake didn’t run for reelection and Cheney lost her primary election when she was challenged by a Trump supporter. Meanwhile, extremists who promote conspiracy theories and question the election, like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, are superstars in the party because the Trump base loves them.
The most striking recent example of the naked pursuit of power could be seen when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy rushed down to Mar-a-Lago to make up with Trump soon after criticizing him over the Capitol insurrection. The California lawmaker knew that a rapprochement with Trump would be crucial to his party gaining a majority in the House.
McConnell rode out the madcap eruptions of Trump’s term and chafed at his selection of questionable midterm candidates and meddling in key races, which has complicating the party’s mission of wining Senate control, even in places that should have been a slam dunk in a national environment that favors the GOP.
McConnell didn’t pay too much attention to Trump’s racist social media posts against his wife. He’s done more than keep quiet. The Senate Leadership Fund has poured millions of dollars into key races, including Ohio and Georgia, in a bid to bail out misfiring candidates effectively crowned as party nominees by none other than Trump.
The Republican nominee for leader stated that he would not vote for McConnell, so the McConnell’s affiliated group is spending money in New Hampshire. But it’s another pickup opportunity that could bolster a possible GOP majority.
The impulse to win control of Congress at all costs – even if it appears to compromise values the GOP professes to stand for – was on display when several US senators flew into Georgia earlier this month to rescue controversy-swamped Senate nominee Hershel Walker.
The Pro-Trump Senate Race is In The Dead Heat, but Republicans Are Predicting Them With Five Thirty-Eight
The pro- Trump nominee has faced allegations of paying for a woman’s abortion despite having said during the campaign that he supports a national ban on the procedure. CNN has not verified the allegations, which Walker denied, but the furor highlighted how risky a campaign would be if Walker had not befriended Trump.
Walker is not the most important thing for Cotton, Scott and McConnell. If he is elected to the Senate he will bring back power to the GOP, as he would represent the 51st Republican vote in the Senate. So there was never any idea that he would be abandoned.
He has been involved with both Trump and Brian Kemp, who defeated Trump earlier this year.
His endorsement is useful for Lake in a close gubernatorial race, but his rising star power in Trump world made it more attractive for him to go. He hugged the kind of political personality who would not have been allowed near his events last year after his speech.
There was a 7 in 10 chance that Democrats would keep the majority in the US Senate, according to a forecasting model created by FiveThirtyEight.
John Fetterman had a narrow lead over Mehmet Oz due to concerns about the lieutenant governor’s health. President Joe Biden was with Fetterman during a visit to Pennsylvania.
GOP nominee Masters appears to be making up some ground on Kelly. The incumbent remains the favorite in the race, but there’s no question there has been some tightening.
- A CBS News/YouGov poll out in Nevada shows the Senate race is in a dead heat, with Republican nominee Adam Laxalt at 49% and Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto at 48%.
In Wisconsin, Democrats point out that Barnes has seen his lead over Johnson erode over the last two months. “People are just hitting their heads against the wall. How do we let this happen?” said Tom Nelson, a Democrat who ran for the Senate nomination earlier this year.
- Allegations regarding Republican Herschel Walker’s past relationships with women don’t appear to have doomed his chances against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, with most polling showing the incumbent with a low-single digit lead.
The race is the majority maker if there is a 50 percent Senate. The trend line is moving in a positive direction for the Republicans.
Reply to Democracy is on the Line” by Ms. Kinzinger, the C.I.A. Rep. J. McMullin, the Republican Accountability Project, and
Mr. Kinzinger is retiring after hostility from Republican colleagues and death threats from voters. On Oct. 22, he was at the Salt Lake City Public Library to endorse Mr. McMullin, a former C.I.A. officer, in his bid to oust Mr. Lee, who cheered on Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in office after the 2020 election. A group of ready and loyal advocates will go to bat for him, after Mr. Lee privately offered in a text to the White House chief of staff.
Declaring that “democracy is on the line,” Mr. Kinzinger told Utah voters last month, “This is the best opportunity I see in the country, and I mean that, to send a message, to build something new, to send somebody that can change the status quo.”
His Country First political organization has endorsed a bipartisan slate of “defenders of democracy,” which includes Josh Shapiro and Katie Hobbs, the Democrats running for governor of Pennsylvania and Arizona, and the Democratic candidates for secretary of state in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Minnesota. But the political action committee has spent virtually no money. The Great Task, Ms. Cheney’s Political Action Committee, has not paid any attention to the ad in Arizona and her failed effort to stave off a Republican primary defeat this summer.
A number of other groups still nominally connected to the Republican Party, like the Lincoln Project, are rejecting the party they have become estranged from on social media and in television commercials intended to peel away disenchanted Republicans and independents. The Republican Accountability Project has been collecting testimonials from disaffected Republican voters, which are turned into billboards and advertisements.
“Whether we as a country will be able to defend our system of self-government in the coming years, even in the next two cycles, will depend on whether we can bring together Republicans, Democrats and independents who are still committed to American democracy, to the Constitution and to the reality of objective truth,” Mr. McMullin said in an interview on Monday. “Are the votes there? Yes, they are there. Can we bring them together? That is the challenge.”
To that end, the power that Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger bring is their personal stories of defiance and excommunication. Ms. Cheney has been stingy with her endorsements, choosing the races she sees as the biggest threats to democracy and Democratic candidates she can personally vouch for. But for candidates like Ms. Slotkin, that makes events like Tuesday’s that much more valuable.
“For vulnerable Democrats in really tight races, a lot of those voters are college-educated swing voters who value the independence of candidates, and there’s extra validation from a Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger saying, ‘Hey, this Republican opponent is beyond the pale,’” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican pollster who helped found the Republican Accountability Project.
Never Is Now: An Address on Antisemitism, Hate and the Ugly Bounds on the Future of the United States
“I think that it was a clear victory for Team Normal, and we have a huge amount of work to do,” said Cheney, speaking at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never Is Now Summit on Antisemitism and Hate.
The Wyoming Republican said he believed that the people in the important races across the country were coming together to say they believe in democracy. “We believe in standing up for the Constitution, and for the Republic. And a real rejection of the toxicity, and the hate, and vitriol, and of Donald Trump.”
Cheney, the vice chair of the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, will be leaving office in fewer than two months, following a resounding defeat in her August primary to a Trump-backed challenger. Her continued criticism of Trump for his role in inciting the attack on the US Capitol was seen as a key factor in her defeat.
But Cheney made clear Thursday that she is intent on trying to shape the next session of Congress and stop – or limit – the scope of a potential Republican majority not committed to protecting democracy.
“I think that the changes that we’re seeing in terms of, you know, bipartisanship on behalf of the Constitution, for example, in terms of my campaigning for some of my colleagues who happen to be Democrats, reflects the challenges and the threats that we’re facing as a nation,” Cheney said.
Cheney said that you cannot tolerate hate speech and can’t tolerate antisemitism.
“Both parties talk about that we need to be a big tent and that’s right. There are views that should never be in the tent on both sides, according to Cheney. Some views cannot be accepted.
Reply to a Letter to the Minority Leader, Senator McConnell, for a Red Wave to Open the Door for the Future
Senators Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mike Lee of Utah sent a letter to the Senate Minority Leader, Senator McConnell of Kentucky, asking that leadership elections be delayed because of calls from the former president for McConnell to be deposed.
“We are all disappointed that a red wave failed to materialize, and there are multiple reasons it did not,” they wrote. We need to discuss what we can do to improve our chances in the next few years.
Marco Rubio was re-elected to his seat in Florida. He wrote about the need for people who want to serve as president to be committed to fighting for the priorities of the working Americans, who gave us big wins in states like Florida.
Romney, who was the presidential nominee in the 2012 elections, released his own prescriptions for the future, which could mean that Republicans were angry and recrimination over policy proposals was a factor in their losses. He counseled Republicans to work with Democrats in the coming Congress to slow inflation by curtailing spending on Medicare and Social Security, to open broader pathways to legal immigration, and to address climate change globally while increasing domestic energy production.
He wrote that the more frequented road would be to pursue pointless investigations, threats, and government shutdowns.