Former President Trump told top Republican Party donors on Saturday night that he is optimistic about the GOP’s chances of success in the mid-term 2022 and retaking the White House in 2024, according to prepared comments obtained by CBS News. Trump did not say whether he would be on the map in that election, but he teased a potential candidacy twice, a participant said at his speech.
“I stand before you with confidence tonight that in 2022 we will take back the House and reclaim the Senate – and then, in 2024, a Republican candidate will win the White House,” said Mr. Trump’s prepared comments said.
However, the former president often deviated from the script during his nearly hour-long speech, according to a visitor to the event. Mr. Trump again targeted Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who after his acquittal condemned Trump in his second impeachment trial and called McConnell a “total cold loser.”
Trump also continued to complain unfounded about fraud in the 2020 election during his speech, according to a source. The former president and his allies lost more than 60 lawsuits that contested the results of the November election and Mr. Trump’s own attorney general said that there was no evidence of fraud at a level that “could have influenced a different election outcome”.
The former president’s speech is the keynote address of the Republican National Committee withdrawal of the spring donorThe event brought the GOP’s top donors to South Florida over the weekend to discuss the future of the party and chart a path to retaking Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024.
According to Mr Trump’s prepared remarks, the key to that success is “to build on the gains our amazing movement has made over the past four years.” He highlighted the new voters he brought to the GOP and stressed that his populist “America First” message will help the party grow.
The former president also took shots at President Biden over various policies that the current administration has implemented that Mr Trump believes have wound up his work in areas such as energy policy and border security.
The closed-press weekend retreat also saw potential candidates for 2024, including Senators Tom Cotton and Rick Scott, and Governors Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senators Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio and former advisor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway also spoke or appeared on panels. Some of the panels during the retreat focused on issues of party unity, growing GOP, and widespread technical censorship.
Mr Trump and other speakers at the retreat pointed companies out about recent political activism, especially those who spoke against Georgia’s new voting lawDuring a reception on Friday night, Cotton targeted companies who spoke out against the bill while maintaining ties with China, according to a source familiar with his comments.
“Major League Baseball and big corporations like Delta and Coca-Cola are boycotting an entire state for passing voter laws,” Cotton told donors. “To those companies, I say this: if you keep quiet about the Chinese Communist Party genocide while begging for their business, don’t start lecturing Americans about voter identification.”
The donors’ conference comes as the GOP continues to follow its next steps with the 2022 midterm elections approaching. While some party leaders distanced themselves a bit from Mr. Trump after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the former president cites the main speaking spot at this retreat, and the event in part to his Mar-a-Lago golf club, that many in the GOP thinks he should play a role in the party’s future.
“Palm Beach is the new center of political power and President Trump is the Republican Party’s best messenger,” said Jason Miller, Trump’s senior aide.
The former president had a tense relationship with the party’s fundraising apparatus in late February and early March, but that appears to have been resolved. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Mr. Trump encouraged activists to give to his political action committee, Save America.
In March, he clashed with the RNC and other GOP committees over the use of his name and likeness for fundraising. In a March 9 statement, Mr. Trump indicated that he “fully supported the Republican Party and major GOP committees, but I do not support RINOs,” an acronym for “Republican in name only.”
Mar-a-Lago is a frequent destination for Republicans to raise money or to meet the former president. Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, running for governor in Arkansas, was one of the last to host an event at the club this weekend. McCarthy and other top Republicans have visited the former president at his club.
Trump has released some approvals, mostly to incumbents, but this week he weighed in on his first open Senate primary primaries when he endorsed Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, who was an early proponent of objecting to the Electoral’s results. College. In his statement endorsing Brooks, Mr. Trump wrote that Brooks “fights for the integrity of voters (like few others).”
The former president has also backed Sanders in her governmental bid and former assistant Max Miller, who will take on Ohio GOP Representative Anthony Gonzalez – one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president.