Ronna McDaniel has officially stepped down from her position as Chair of the Republican National Committee — a position she’s held since 2017 — but not without first issuing a stark and pointed warning to her party on her way out the door.
McDaniel gave all of the customary platitudes one would expect when stepping down from such a position, stating today, “It is a little bit bittersweet to be with all of you here today as I step down as chair after seven years of working with you all.”
But she also made sure to make her opinion on one particular and highly controversial topic well-known before she formally bowed out — Abortion.
In her farewell address today, McDaniel called her party out on their flatfooted and milquetoast approach to the subject of abortion rights in the US, ever since the landmark Roe V. Wade decision was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 2022.
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“We cannot put our heads in the sand and ignore abortion and the Dobbs decision,” McDaniel told the GOP. “Many of our candidates chose to ignore this issue and not talk about it. And the RNC was … urging candidates to talk about this issue head-on. Go figure — I’m a suburban mom, I might have some opinions on this issue.”
Ronna then pointed to a 2022 memo she penned, stating that Republicans needed to qualify their opposition to abortions with exceptions to the rule for cases that involve rape or incest.
“Too many candidates, and specifically their consultants, scoffed at this advice and ended up paying the price on election day,” she said. “In 2022, candidates mattered. Candidates always matter. But the candidates who won were able to articulate a message on abortion and also attract and win swing and independent voters.”
The now-former RNC Chair hammered her argument home when she told Republicans that they “can’t win just by speaking to an echo chamber of Republicans.”
“We don’t win if we only talk to each other,” she fired off. “We have to go out and talk to independent and swing voters and sell them on our vision for this country.”
Outgoing RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel: “We cannot put our head in sands and ignore abortion and the Dobbs decision. Many of our candidates chose to ignore this issue and not talk about it…we can’t win by just speaking to an echo chamber of Republicans.” pic.twitter.com/IrHxu0NeCQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 8, 2024
McDaniel’s decision to step down from a position that she was just reelected to in January has been described by people close to Donald Trump as a hostile takeover of the RNC by the scandal-plagued former president and current GOP 2024 frontrunner, according to reporting from CNN.
As Trump has all but secured the Republican nomination for the impending presidential election, he and his people and been working overtime to secure an impenetrable stronghold over the RNC — especially as his legal bills and fines stack up to a collective ticket of more than half a billion dollars that he doesn’t appear to be able to pay on his own.
Trump ensured that upon the departure of McDaniel and her co-chair Drew McKissick, they would be replaced by his picks, North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley as Chair and his own daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as co-chair. The former president has also confirmed his plan to install two of his senior advisers, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, to serve in senior RNC positions.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
