Former president takes toll on unloyal Republicans and boosts other candidates in his party’s primaries
The day before the House of Representatives voted on the infrastructure bill last November, David McKinley, former chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party and representative of West Virginia in Congress for more than a decade, received a call from former US President Donald Trump. , according to what he himself said that day. The “former administration official,” whose name he declined to reveal, warned him that if he voted for the law that would bring Joe Biden the greatest success of his presidency, Trump would back another candidate who would take his position in the presidential primary. the Republican party. “I support West Virginia,” McKinley replied defiantly.
He lost his seat last Tuesday. “Donald Trump loves West Virginia and West Virginia loves Donald Trump,” his rival Alex Mooney declared triumphantly. It was arguably the biggest showdown the day had to offer the former president. McKinley wasn’t exactly anti-Trump. He voted against his impeachment both times and supported him even more than his rival. “And if he shows up again, I’ll vote for him,” he told The Atlantic.
After reaffirming his seat seven times, McKinley gained the backing of the great fortunes of the state in which he is deeply rooted, unlike his Maryland-born rival. Trump, however, hung the RINO (Republicans In Name) label embarrassing his enemies within the party and criticizing him for passing a law that will “waste millions on the New Green Deal” of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing. . He was even led to believe that he would support Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’.
The lies were so blatant that Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who enjoys bipartisan support and is the one who boycotted Biden’s law, denied him on television. Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former Secretary of State and former CIA director, also came to his aid. McKinley, a 75-year-old civil engineer, planned his campaign events in sanitation facilities and abandoned mines that would be cleared with the $6,000 million his state will get through its infrastructure bill negotiations. In fact, West Virginia is the seventh state in the Union to benefit the most in millions “per capita,” but the congressman preached to believers. Most Republicans agreed with the law, which promises to bring life back to aquifers that are no longer fishable.
Still, McKinley’s loss was not the least, but by about 20 points. Rather, Trump’s favorite for the Nebraska administration lost last Tuesday on that same primary day. Charles Herbster could not ignore the allegations of sexual assault by eight women against him, because for that you have to be Donald Trump.
A year and a half after leaving power, Trump’s influence on the conservative party is greater than ever. McKinley’s cardinal sin had been to vote for the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the capture of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump is talking about the 35 Republicans who have joined the Democrats in a multimillion-dollar investment that will modernize the country’s infrastructure, but above all the 10 who voted for his second “impeachment” because they could end the January uprising. 6th. There was only a week left before he left office, an argument used by the more than 200 Republican congressmen who, despite seeing the wildest faces of his followers, decided to let him go.
That was the chance to prevent him from running for election again in 2024. Evidence that the former president has his sights set on returning to the White House is that he hasn’t spent a dime on the more than $140 million raised since then. of the candidates he uses to backfire on disloyal lawmakers, with one exception: David Perdue, the former senator trying to dethrone Georgia governor Brian Kemp, who directly blames Trump for he lost the election. With the 11,780 votes the president had asked the Georgia Secretary of State to “find him” in a telephone conversation, the result would have been very different. Brad Raffensperger, a longtime Republican who supported Trump in the election, refused to commit fraud and also made the recording public. That is the basis of the election fraud investigation by that state’s attorney general. One of the few ways to stop Trump’s attempt to return to power.
In a statement last November, Trump pledged his support for all “patriots” who were willing to challenge their enemies in the Republican Party primaries, starting with the seven who voted for his “impeachment,” by first and last name. “Three others have already retired!” he defiantly noted in the announcement. And of course, “The Alaska Disaster,” as Senator Lisa Murkowski qualifies, “must go,” he ordered. “There is hardly anyone worse than her!” he exclaimed.
She had also said the same about the former president after the uprising that took the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “He has to leave, he’s done enough damage already.” Of the seven Republican senators who have joined the Democrats to disqualify Trump, Murkowski is the only one who will have to endorse his position in the November 8 polls. “Maybe I’m the last person standing, they can’t get me re-elected,” he told the New York Times before voting for the first US Supreme Court justice, Ketanki Brown. “The people of Alaska might prefer a Republican who just puts his signature on what they say, and if that’s the case, so be it, but I’m going to give them an alternative,” Murkowski said.
His moment of truth will come on August 16, and there will be other primaries until September 13. In each of them, Trump will measure his strength and the control he has over the party of his predecessors Reagan and Bush.
This week, Pennsylvania offers him another chance with Dr. Mehmet Oz, a TV star he has backed to take the place vacated by Pat Toomey, in another state whose election results he contested to the bitter end. “And make no mistake, this is about Trump because if I lose, the media will say he’s done,” the Ohio Senate candidate told supporters before triumphantly exiting the polls. And if his candidates win, Trump can rest assured that he will have his loyalists in every position of power in the next election.
Source: La Verdad
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