For the first time in more than a decade, Republicans are waking up to a Washington where Democrats control the White House and Congress, adapting to an era of diminished power, deep uncertainty and internal strife.
The shift to minority status is always difficult, sparking debates over who is to blame for losing the last election. But the process is especially intense, as Republicans face deep questions about what the party stands for without Donald Trump at the helm.
For the past four years, Republican Party values have been inexorably tied to the whims of a president who regularly undermined democratic institutions and changed the party’s commitment to fiscal discipline, strong foreign policy and the rule of law to an impertinent and inconsistent populism. The party now faces a decision on whether to continue moving in that direction, as demanded by many of Trump’s most loyal supporters, or to chart a new course.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, one of the few Republican elected officials who regularly condemned Trumpism, evoked President Ronald Reagan in calling the moment a “time to choose.”
“We have to decide whether to continue in the direction of Donald Trump or whether to go back to our roots,” Hogan, a possible 2024 White House candidate, said in an interview.
“The party would be much better off if they purged themselves of Donald Trump,” he added. “But I don’t think there’s any hope that he’ll leave completely.”
If the party moves forward it may stay on what Republicans like Texas Senator Ted Cruz will do next.
Cruz spent weeks extinguishing Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud, which helped spark the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. Republican election officials on various battlefields claim that President Joe Biden led to say the election was fair. Trump’s demands were flatly rejected in the courts, including judges appointed by Trump.
Cruz acknowledged Biden’s victory Wednesday, but refused to call it legitimate when she was pressured.
“She won the election. He is the president. I just came back from his inauguration, ”Cruz said of Biden in an interview.
Looking to the future, Cruz said Trump would remain an important part of the political conversation, but that the Republican Party should move away from the “language, tone and rhetoric” dividers that alienated suburban voters, especially women, in the last election.
“President Trump is sure to continue to spread his views and continue to have a real impact, but I think the country going forward wants policies that work, and I think as a party we need to win a better job. minds, ”said Cruz, who is also looking at a career in the White House.
After the Capitol Uprising, a small but notable faction of high-profile Republicans takes a stronger stance against Trump or distances himself from him.
The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said on the eve of the inauguration that the pro-Trump crowd that stormed the Capitol was “provoked by the president.” Even Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president and long considered his most devoted cheerleader, skipped Trump’s departure ceremony to attend Biden’s inauguration.
Trump retired Wednesday to his South Florida estate, where he retained a small group of White House aides who would work in a two-story guest house on the Mar-a-Lago grounds. In addition to advisers in Washington, Trump will have access to a well-funded political action committee, the Save America PAC, which is likely to inherit tens of millions of dollars in donations that flooded his campaign coffers after his election loss. .
Those close to Trump believe he will step down in the immediate future as he focuses on his next impeachment trial to incite revolt. After that, he is expected to reappear, probably granting media interviews and finding a new home on social media after losing his powerful Twitter megaphone.
While his plans have just taken shape, Trump is expected to remain politically active, including trying to take revenge by backing the main challenges against Republicans he believed he despised in his last days. It continues to leave the door open for another presidency in 2024. Some friends believe it could even flirt with running as a third-party candidate, which would severely divide an already fractured Republican Party.
Trump cast a disastrous vote when he last left the White House as president: “We’ll come back somehow.”
Many of the Republican Party’s hard base continue to promote conspiracy theories, embrace white nationalism, and most of all, venerate Trump’s voice as a gospel.
Trump loyalists in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wyoming expressed their outrage and disappointment at the ten Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust Trump last week. One of them, Michigan Rep. Pete Meijer, said he bought armor to protect himself from a wave of threats from Trump supporters.
In Montana, Republican State President Frank Eathorne raised the possibility of secession this week and criticized Rep. Liz Cheney, another Republican who supported Trump’s ouster, pledging to maintain loyalty to Trump.
“The Republican National Committee sees President Trump as our party leader in the future … The (state party) agrees,” said Eathorne, who noted that Trump “represents the timeless principles” that represent the state and the national Republican Party.
Trump left office with 34% approval, according to Gallup, the lowest of his presidency, but the overwhelming majority of Republicans, 82%, approved his job performance. While some are trying to move forward, Trump’s continued popularity with the Republican Party base ensures he will remain a political force.
Despite the Republican Party’s numerous challenges, they are within reach of reclaiming one or both chambers of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. Since the mid-2006 period, the White House party has lost an average of 37 seats in the House. Democrats currently have a 10-seat majority in the House and are tied with Republicans in the Senate.
Hogan, the governor of Maryland, said the Republican Party could be at one of its lowest points in history, but noted that Reagan regained the White House for Republicans just six years after President Richard Nixon was seen forced to resign dishonored.
“Viously, obviously (Trump) still has a block on a pretty good chunk of the Republican base, but there are a lot of people who were afraid to talk for four years, unlike me, who are now starting to talk,” Hogan said. .
Still, there are many obstacles ahead. The main challenges could leave the party with candidates for Congress next year, who are even further to the right, jeopardizing the GOP’s adherence to races they might otherwise win.
More immediately, Senate Republicans, including McConnell, are fighting to convince Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors, as mentioned in last week’s ouster in the House. Ultimately, the Senate could vote to ban Trump from taking office again.
“I hope Republicans don’t get involved in this small vindictive, final attack on President Trump,” Cruz said. “We just have to keep going.”
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Meade Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming, contributed to this report.