After Donald Trump’s second impeachment, the now-former president summoned political advisers and demanded to know more about the ten Republicans who had voted against him. Donald J. Trump holds a grudge like no other, so he’s not going to take the news well that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been quietly working to prop up some of the Republicans that voted to impeach the one-term president.
CNN’s Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju, and Alex Rogers report that McCarthy and his leadership team are raising money for at least half of the ten Republicans that voted to hold Trump responsible for inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection with their vote to impeach.
“Half of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection — Reps. David Valadao of California, Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, John Katko of New York, and Fred Upton and Peter Meijer, both of Michigan — participate in a joint fundraising committee with McCarthy and his leadership PAC, which has raised roughly $100,000 for each of the five campaigns in the first half of the year,” the report states.
Republican challengers aren’t too happy about McCarthy raising funds to re-elect the GOP incumbents.
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“McCarthy is talking out of one side of his mouth, saying that he supports the MAGA movement, Trump and President Trump’s policies, but his money is supporting Jaime Herrera Beutler and four of the other impeachment voters,” Joe Kent, a Trump-backed primary challenger to Herrera Beutler, told CNN. “It’s just part of the GOP grift. So me and the rest of the base, we’ve kind of heard enough from them.”
Kent was asked whether he would support McCarthy for speaker of the House one day if he’s elected to Congress, and he replied, “Absolutely not.”
“His comments underscore the kinds of headaches facing McCarthy,” CNN reports. “Trump’s meddling in GOP primaries — especially in key swing districts — is threatening to complicate the House GOP’s path back to the majority. The California Republican finds himself caught between a Trump-loyal right flank whom he needs to be speaker one day and Republican incumbents whom he has vowed to protect.”
State Rep. Steve Carra (R) isn’t happy with McCarthy, either.
“I don’t care about DC leaders … most of the Republicans in DC are RINOs who have no interest in actually putting America First,” Carra said in an email to CNN. “Kevin McCarthy has a choice to make. He can continue to back the Anti-Trump Fred Upton who voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump or he can join the America First movement and support Steve Carra, who now has the full and total endorsement of President Trump.”
Republicans have hitched their wagon to an anchor that’s already lying on the bottom of the sea. The Republican party today should change its name to the Trump party. Trump cost his party the House, the Senate, and the White House, and yet, they remain loyal to the twice-impeached one-term president that wears lifts in his shoes to appear taller. It’s amazing, really.
Featured image via Kevin McCarthy/House.gov
