Former President Trump on Saturday night told top Republican Party donors that he is optimistic about the Republican Party’s chances of success in mid-2022 and the recovery of the White House in 2024, according to prepared comments obtained by CBS News. Trump did not say whether he would run in these elections, but twice sparked a potential candidacy, according to an attendee in his speech.
“I am before you this evening full of confidence that in 2022 we will regain the House and regain the Senate, and then in 2024 a Republican candidate will win the White House,” Mr. Trump’s prepared statements said.
The former president, however, often deviated from the script during his nearly-hour speech, according to an attendee at the event. Trump again targeted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blasted Trump after his acquittal in his second impeachment trial, calling McConnell a “total loser of the cold.”
According to a source, Mr. Trump also continued to complain of unfounded fraud in the 2020 election during his speech. The former president and his allies lost more than 60 lawsuits challenging the results of the November election, and Trump’s attorney general himself said there was no evidence of fraud at a level that “could have affected a different outcome. in the elections “.
The former president’s speech is the main speech of the Republican National Committee spring donor withdrawal. The event brought major Republican Party donors to South Florida over the weekend to discuss the future of the party and chart a path toward the recovery of Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024.
The key to this success, according to Trump’s prepared statements, is “to build on the gains our amazing movement has made over the past four years.” He highlighted the new voters he brought to the Republican Party and stressed that his populist message “America First” will help the party continue to grow.
The former president also fired at President Biden for several policies the current administration has implemented and which Trump believes he has carried out his work in areas such as energy policy and border security.
The weekend press conference with the press closed also featured appearances by potential 2024 candidates, including Senators Tom Cotton and Rick Scott and Gov. Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senators Lindsey Graham, Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio and former President Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway also intervened or appeared on the panels. Some of the panels during the retreat focused on issues such as party unity, Republican Party growth, and censorship of big technologies.
Trump and other withdrawal speakers skewed companies over recent political activism, particularly those who spoke out against it. Georgia’s new voting bill. During a reception Friday night, Cotton targeted companies that protested against the bill while maintaining ties with China, according to a source familiar with his comments.
“Cotton Major League Baseball and big corporations like Delta and Coca-Cola are boycotting an entire state to pass election identification laws,” Cotton told donors. “I tell these corporations this: if you shut up about the genocide of the Chinese Communist Party while asking for their business, don’t start giving lectures to Americans about voter identification.”
The donor conference comes as the Republican Party continues to navigate its next steps with the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. Although some party leaders distanced themselves somewhat from Mr. Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the former president’s first place of speech during that retreat was to bring the event in part to the his Mar-a-Lago golf club, indicates that many the Republican Party believes should play a role in the future of the party.
“Palm Beach is the new center of political power and President Trump is the best messenger in the Republican party,” said Jason Miller, Trump’s aide.
The former president maintained a close relationship with the party’s fundraising apparatus in late February and early March, but it appears to have been resolved. During his speech at the February Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump encouraged activists to give to his political action committee, Save America.
In March, he clashed with the RNC and other Republican Party committees to use his name and likeness for fundraising. In a statement issued on March 9, Mr. Trump indicated that he fully supported the “Republican Party and the important Republican Party committees, but I do not support the RINOs,” an acronym for “Republican-only name.”
Mar-a-Lago has been a frequent destination for Republicans to raise funds or meet with the former president. Former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is running for governor in Arkansas, was one of the last to hold an event at the club this weekend. McCarthy and other top Republicans have visited the former president at his club.
Trump has thrown in some support, mostly headlines, but this week weighed on his first open Senate primaries when he passed Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks, who was an early advocate of opposing the results. Electoral College. In his statement supporting Brooks, Trump wrote that Brooks “fights for the integrity of voters (like few others).”
The former president has also supported Sanders in his government candidacy and former aide Max Miller, who is running for OOP representative Anthony Gonzalez, one of ten House Republicans who voted to accuse the former president.