The Lincoln Project says the Republican party is now dead.
Most Republicans Don’t Mind Paying Trump’s Legal Bills
A new Civiqs/DailyKos poll finds that 63% of Republican voters say either that they want the RNC to cover Trump’s legal bills, or that they don’t care if it does.
Just 26% of Republican voters oppose using the national party’s funds to cover the cost of Trump’s legal tab.
RNC Ends Minority Outreach Program
“After years of accusations of financial mismanagement, the Republican National Committee is overhauling its 2024 election operations—a full-on MAGA makeover that the RNC claims will curb excessive spending and steer as much money as possible to supporting Donald Trump’s campaign,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But it appears that one of those strategic spending moves may have a profound effect on a successful minority outreach program, potentially erasing gains with groups of gettable new voters who have cooled on the Democratic Party.”
Trump Moving Key RNC Functions to Palm Beach
New York Times: “One person with direct knowledge of the changes said the party’s full finance and digital teams were now planned to be moved to Palm Beach, Fla., where the Trump campaign is based. Another person described the party and Trump operations as being functionally fused into one.”
Bloodbath at the RNC
“Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials,” Politico reports.
“All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut.”
“The overhaul is aimed at cutting, what one of the people described as, ‘bureaucracy’ at the RNC. But the move also underscores the swiftness with which Trump’s operation is moving to take over the Republican Party’s operations after the former president all but clinched the party’s presidential nomination last week.”
Katie Britt’s Big Fail Shows Why GOP Cannot Connect
Karen Tumulty: “How Britt was presented to a national audience… says a lot about why the GOP struggles to connect with suburban women. Her breathy, overwrought delivery would have embarrassed any self-respecting high school drama club.”
“And the setting sent another message that was not helpful at a moment when Republicans are trying to shake their image as a party that wants to send women backward in time.”
Said GOP pollster Christine Matthews on X: “Not sure whose genius idea it was to put a U.S. Senator in the kitchen to deliver the response to the State of the Union. In the panel work I have done with swing women since 2014 we have tested ads like this — i.e. women talking health care in the kitchen — and it just sets women voters off.”
For members: At Least Katie Britt Impressed Tommy Tuberville
Trump’s Team Hires Lawyer to ‘Watch the Money’ at RNC
Donald Trump’s new team at the Republican National Committee “has tapped former RNC executive Sean Cairncross to help run the party’s operations and watch its spending in the run-up to the November election,” Axios reports.
“Cairncross, a former RNC chief operating officer, will rejoin the party’s staff at a time when GOP critics are pressing the committee to curb what they view as excess spending under former chair Ronna McDaniel.”
What Do Republicans Stand For… Literally?
Jen Psaki: “Perhaps the most revealing part about Thursday night, at least when it comes to members of the Republican Party, was what they refused to stand for. And I mean that literally. Traditionally, members of an opposing party will remain seated when they disagree with the president, and stand up — or at least clap — on matters of bipartisan consensus.”
“But on Thursday night, many Republicans refused to stand when President Joe Biden celebrated even the most fundamental American values and accomplishments.”
“House Speaker Mike Johnson was a particularly awkward example of this, as he grimaced in his chair through the majority of the speech. Johnson and his peers refused to stand to celebrate job growth, plummeting inflation, or Biden’s pledge to buy American goods and products. They didn’t stand up to support literacy or increased access to preschool.”
RNC Installs Trump’s Chosen Leaders
“Donald Trump, who is again likely to be the Republican nominee, commenced a fresh overhaul of the party’s central committee as it seeks to make up a fundraising gap and reverse the party’s disappointments in recent elections,” the Washington Post reports.
“The Republican National Committee formally elected Trump’s choices of Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law who was accompanied at the meeting by her husband, Eric, as its two highest-ranking officers at a meeting here Friday. The RNC’s operations will be run by a top adviser to Trump’s campaign, Chris LaCivita.”
Trump’s Takeover of RNC Set to Be Official
CNN: “The leadership changes aren’t entirely out of the ordinary. A national committee is typically overhauled after the party has a de facto or official presidential nominee. The changes normally come in the form of a new chairperson or a top official from the presidential campaign moving over to the committee.”
“This time, however, people close to the former president and at the RNC describe the shift as a more of a takeover. Trump is looking to sync the RNC closely with his presidential campaign, building out a team that will indulge in his focus on election fraud and improve its fundraising prowess – at a time when the committee finds itself in dire financial straits.”
Trump to Seize Control of GOP Machine
“Donald Trump will tighten his grip on the GOP on Friday when his allies are poised to take control of the Republican National Committee at a meeting in Houston, Texas,” Bloomberg reports.
“After sweeping the Super Tuesday primaries and virtually guaranteeing he’s the nominee, Trump has handpicked his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, and Michael Whatley for top jobs in the party. They’re expected to receive enough votes from delegates to glide into the posts with no opposition, and their term will last past the election through January 2025.”
“The effective merging of the Trump campaign and the RNC is another step on the ex-president’s march toward total dominance over the party.”
Trump RNC ‘Purge’ Has Some Members Nervous
USA Today: “A top concern is Trump’s mounting legal bills, and whether he could try and get the party to pay for them. Some committee members supported a failed resolution that aimed at prohibiting the RNC from picking up Trump’s legal tab.”
“The overhaul of RNC leadership also has critics. Trump is known to surround himself with family members: in business and in politics. One of the ways that Trump managed his first term at the White House was by appointing family to key roles, including daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.”
For Trump, it’s the only way to guarantee the utmost loyalty.”
Trump’s RNC Allies Want to Pay His Legal Bills
“A growing number of Republican National Committee members believe its campaign arm should help pay mounting legal bills for former President Donald Trump, a move that could strain the party’s ability to financially support other candidates in the 2024 election,” CNBC reports.
Meanwhile, the RNC’s Henry Barbour told Reuters that his resolution to block Trump from tapping RNC to pay legal bills “is dead.”
Ex-Florida GOP Chair Won’t Face Criminal Charges
Former Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler won’t be charged with illegally taping a sexual encounter, due to insufficient evidence, Politico reports.
Can Michael Whatley Keep Everyone Happy at the RNC?
“On Feb. 12, as rumors swirled that Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel would step down, Donald Trump endorsed Michael Whatley, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, to take over the top job at the RNC — portraying him as a MAGA loyalist through and through,” NOTUS reports.
“The truth about Whatley, however, is slightly more complicated. He did endorse Trump before he secured the nomination in 2016, and he appears to have risen in Trump’s esteem through his dedication to promoting election integrity — a buzz phrase Trump has championed while making unfounded claims about 2020 fraud. Yet Whatley is also a skilled operator with a substantial pre-Trump career in Republican politics, is known as a clear-eyed and personable strategist and is liked even by Trump-skeptical establishment Republicans.”
“In short, Whatley — who is expected to be formally chosen as RNC chair this week — may best be understood as a bridge between the new MAGA version of the Republican Party and the old version that Trump vanquished.”
‘My Month of Living Like a Republican’
Dana Milbank: “I joined for the sole purpose of supporting Nikki Haley over Donald Trump in the District of Columbia’s Republican primary, held this past weekend. … But if I was going to register as a Republican, it was only right that I should start acting Republican.”
Quote of the Day
“We’ve now 86’d: McCarthy, McDaniel, McConnell. Better days are ahead for the Republican Party.”
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), on X.
Trump Campaign Insists RNC Won’t Pay His Legal Bills
Time: “Over the coming months, Donald Trump is set to carve out a singular place in American history: the first major party nominee to effectively run his campaign out of a courtroom. As Trump fights 91 felony indictments in four separate venues, some Republicans have a pressing question they want answered: How much money from the GOP machinery will go toward his legal expenses?”
“The answer, Trump campaign officials say, is none. Sources close to Trump tell TIME the former President plans to pay his legal bills mostly through his personal checkbook and the help of allied Super PACs. But they are still mobilizing against a proposed resolution from a Republican National Committee member to ban party funds from covering Trump’s legal fees.”
Said one Trump-allied committee member: “It’s an insult. It’s kind of an F You to the Trump campaign. That’s why.”
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