With an aging and increasingly powerless Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) serving as Senate Minority Leader, and the top Republican majority House leadership seat sitting empty with the GOP caucus at war with itself, Republicans are panicking with the 2024 election just one year away.
According to a report from the New York Times, the Republican Party is “divided, directionless and effectively leaderless” in large part because everything they attempt to do — including selecting a new House speaker — has Donald Trump hovering over it.
As the report notes, the daily drumbeat of headlines documenting a GOP that can’t get its act together combined with a possible top-of-the-ticket 2024 presidential nominee who is dogged by 91 criminal indictments is putting the GOP behind the 8-ball.
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The Times notes that Trump is central to the party’s problems and has the GOP trapped in “an endless loop of chaos.”
“His commanding position has turned Republicans into a party of one, demanding absolute loyalty to Mr. Trump and his personal feuds and pet causes, such as his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen,” the Times is reporting. “The result is an endless loop of chaos that even some Republicans say once again threatens to define the party’s brand heading into an election in which Republicans — after struggling to meet the basic responsibilities of governing the House of Representatives — will ask voters to also put them in charge of the Senate and the White House.”
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) is sounding the alarm, stating, “This looks like a group of 11th graders trying to pick the junior class president, and it will hurt our party long term. It’s going to be very hard to make the case that the American people should turn over control of the government to Republicans when you can’t even elect a speaker.”
The Wall Street Journal editorial board agrees, writing weeks ago: “As the current mess in choosing another House Speaker shows, never underestimate the ability of Republicans to commit electoral suicide.”
Conservative gadfly Ann Coulter was much more succinct, saying, “These Republicans are complete idiots.”
