Former President Donald Trump continues to rage against the Republicans who criticize him, despite some advisers insisting that he should target President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders, according to people familiar with the matter.
Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, and former GOP politician Karl Rove are among the targets of Trump’s anger, these people said.
These people refused to be named in order to speak freely.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller responded to CNBC’s request for comment on this story by emailing, “Fake news. We aim to win back the House and Senate by 2022.”
CNBC had asked which Republicans Trump planned to target in midterm primaries after the former president said he planned to back several primary contenders who support his Make America Great Again agenda.
There are currently 20 Senate seats held by Republicans, including four not participating, which are up for grabs by 2022. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski is the only one of seven Republicans who voted to condemn Trump in his second impeachment and face re-election next year. The whole house is also at stake.
Trump’s anger at the Republicans who criticized him was most publicly expressed in his statement accusing Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Who called Trump a “stiff, gloomy and unsmiling political hack.”
Trump’s comments came after McConnell, even after voting to acquit the former president in his second impeachment trial, said Trump was responsible for the Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6. Trump said in response that he plans to back the top contenders in the 2022 midterm elections that back him.
Advisers have told Trump that many Republican voters, who have been questioned by the former president’s strategists, do not want to see all-out war in the GOP. Instead, they would rather see Trump target Biden and top Democrats.
Senator Rick Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has told his associates that he wants to convince McConnell to work with Trump so the two can settle their differences before the meantime, a GOP adviser said. Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., is reportedly planning to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort this weekend in a bid to play a peacemaker.
Chris Hartline, a spokesman for the NRSC, told CNBC that Scott “is not involved in brokering anything. He is focused on the future and reclaiming the Senate. He spends every day raising money and talking about how important it is. it is to save this country by stopping the Democrats’ insane rush for socialism and the loss of freedom and prosperity. “
“I don’t know if he spoke to the leader recently, but we’re not talking about private conversations he had with other senators,” Hartline added.
Representatives for McConnell and Scott did not respond to requests for comment.
Still, Trump’s allies are not going back for the idea that support for his agenda will help Republicans in primaries.
“When you know you’ve got the muscle of President Trump behind you, and all of the president’s devoted loyal followers, and even as important or more important, America’s first policy, it’s going to be hard to beat,” said Roy Bailey. a Texas businessman and former head of Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee between the campaign and the Republican National Committee, told CNBC.
Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., A staunch defender of Trump in Congress, tweeted that Republicans will be rejected by the base of the party if they don’t embrace the former president’s agenda. Gaetz has called for the impeachment of Republican House Leader Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., After voting to impeach Trump for instigating the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot.
Rove has emerged as a leading Republican critic of Trump, and the former president is not happy about it, one person said. Rove, a former senior adviser to former President George W. Bush, recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal defending his longtime ally McConnell and blaming the former president directly for the double outcome of the Georgia Senate.
Mr. Trump lost those seats in Georgia by making his campaign appearances there not about the need for checks and balances for the coming Biden administration, but instead about his anger at losing the presidential election, Rove wrote on Wednesday.
Trump is also angry with Thune, who is due for re-election next year, another person said. As for Thune, the South Dakota Republican voted with Trump more than 90% of the time, according to data from FiveThirtyEight. But he was also an outspoken Trump critic of the Capitol Hill uprising.
Trump had warned in December that Thune would face a primary challenge after the senator said attempts to challenge the electoral college’s results would fall “like a dog” in the Senate.
Nonetheless, the Cook Political Report calls Thune’s race a “solid Republican.”
After voting to acquit the president, Thune said, “There is no excuse for what former President Trump did to undermine belief in our electoral system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”
Thune criticized Republican activists in a recent Associated Press interview. He said these activists are engaged in “canceling culture” by rushing to disapprove GOP lawmakers who voted to oust Trump.
Thune, according to the AP, said he plans to help candidates “who aren’t going to talk about conspiracies and things like that.”
“At the grassroots level, there are a lot of people who want to see Trump-like candidates,” he said. “But I think we are going to look for candidates who are eligible.”