ICYMI: Republicans Don’t Want To Talk About Trump Unless They’re On The Campaign Trail [HuffPost]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

HuffPost: Republicans Don’t Want To Talk About Trump Unless They’re On The Campaign Trail
By Igor Bobic
October 19, 2021

Key Points:

• In the halls of Congress, Republican lawmakers often shy away from questions about former President Donald Trump, his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election, and the threat his continued lies pose to American democracy.

• But it’s a different story on the campaign trail, where GOP candidates are actively jockeying for Trump’s endorsement, party committees are using his name and likeness to raise funds ahead of the 2022 midterms, and top GOP senators are joining him at campaign rallies.

• The split dynamic played out Tuesday on Capitol Hill, where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who called Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the violent Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, gently urged his party to focus on the future rather than the past.

• But Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), one of the senators at McConnell’s side at Tuesday’s press conference, hasn’t exactly embraced that ethos.

• The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Scott voted to object to Biden’s electoral victory based on Trump’s false claims of fraud. He has put Trump at the center of the party’s efforts to retake the Senate next year, stroking the former president’s ego with made-up accolades and mimicking his voice in appeals for funds.

• Last week, Scott even invited Trump to address GOP senators at a donor retreat in Palm Beach, Florida, otherwise known as Trump’s backyard, where the former president continued to spout false allegations of election fraud.

• Embracing Trump as a way to raise funds also means giving him a bigger platform to spread his lies about election fraud. Those sorts of lies could backfire on the party as it seeks to retake control of Congress next year.

• Trump suggested last week that Republican voters would stay home in the 2022 midterms unless every Republican official follows him down the rabbit hole by questioning the integrity of U.S. election systems. Some Republicans fear that this kind of rhetoric could depress voter turnout and cost the party at the ballot box.

• “GOP Senate candidates are spending their time sucking up to Trump, viciously attacking their Republican primary opponents or just talking about whatever they think Trump cares about, like the 2020 election,” said David Bergstein, a spokesperson for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “In doing so, they are demonstrating how out of touch they are with the concerns of voters who will decide the general election in their states.”

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