Like We Said: The GOP is The Party of Trump

On Saturday, Donald Trump brought his clown show back to Iowa, where he famously once called Iowans “stupid,” in his continued effort to maintain relevance. Instead of rejecting the loser ex-president who cost them the House, Senate, and White House, and incited an attack on the Capitol and police officers with his dangerous lies, Republicans have openly embraced him and welcomed the anvil around their neck heading in 2022.

The Republican Party has shifted from their lukewarm pushback of Trump to full-on bear hugging Trump and his election lies:

Associated Press: Iowa’s GOP leaders stand by Trump as he repeats false claims

  • “Republican Sen. Charles Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds embraced Donald Trump’s return to Iowa on Saturday, standing by the former president as he repeated his false claims of voter fraud and a stolen election to a crowd of thousands.”
  • “Neither Grassley nor Reynolds made any reference to Trump’s post-presidency, during which he has continued to lie about the results and urge Republicans to conduct ‘audits’ of the vote counts. Reynolds, also seeking reelection next year, gushed with praise for Trump in her brief remarks.”

Politico: Trump holds fast to his election lies as the GOP establishment hugs him tighter

  • “Nine months ago, Republicans were questioning Donald Trump’s place as the lead fixture of their party. Saturday night provided the clearest evidence yet that they want him right there.”
  • “Appearing alongside the former president was a who’s who of influential Republicans in the Hawkeye state, including Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds, Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson, former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann.”
  • “Trump has held rallies since leaving the White House. But never have elected Republicans of such tenure and stature appeared with him. And the presence of Grassley in particular signified that whatever qualms the GOP may have had with Trump are now faded memories; whatever questions they had about the direction of the party have been resolved.”

This weekend’s rally has confirmed what we’ve been saying: The Republican Party is, and has been, the party of Trump. They own his election lies, failed leadership, divisiveness, and more.Politico: GOP hands Trump the party

  • “Trump’s message: ‘I’m telling you the single biggest issue, as bad as the border is and it’s horrible, horrible what they’re doing, they’re destroying our country — but as bad as that is, the single biggest issue — the issue that gets the most pull, the most respect, the biggest cheers — is talking about the election fraud of the 2020 presidential election.’”
  • “That’s a problem for Republicans. Many of them want to make the midterm elections about the issues — inflation, the border, Afghanistan, etc. — to set the election up as a referendum on Biden’s presidency. Trump doesn’t. The bulk of his speech, Meridith writes, ‘was devoted to his baseless claim [that] the 2020 election was stolen.’ In focusing on that issue above all others, Trump effectively makes the 2022 election a referendum on him instead of Biden.”

The Hill: Grassley’s embrace of Trump shakes GOP landscape

  • “Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) enthusiastic appearance at a Trump event in Iowa over the weekend shows that the former president has further strengthened his grip on the GOP following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.”
  • “He said at the time that Trump belittled and harassed elected officials across the country ‘to get his way’ and encouraged his own vice president, Mike Pence, ‘to take extraordinary and unconstitutional actions’ to interfere with the Electoral College count in Congress.”
  • “Even so, Grassley was glad to accept Trump’s endorsement at a rally where the former president once again insisted that the 2020 election was rigged, a claim that courts have thrown out repeatedly and that even many Senate Republicans have rejected.”
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