Just a couple weeks after the last Republican retreat was a complete disaster rife with petty insults and shaken donors, the Republican Party civil war rages on, this time at the House Republican policy retreat in Orlando.

First, there are the initial salvos of what will surely be a nasty 2024 Republican primary with Liz Cheney already disqualifying several potential candidates for supporting overturning the 2020 election.

Fox News: “But she emphasized that GOP lawmakers who supported Trump’s bid to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden should be disqualified from running for the Republican nomination in 2024. ‘I do think that some of our candidates who led the charge, particularly the senators who led the unconstitutional charge, not to certify the election, you know, in my view that’s disqualifying,’ Cheney said.”

House Republicans continue to tear themselves apart, as they grapple with a lack of direction, an out-of-touch message, and extremists in their own party.

Politico: “McCarthy-Cheney divide deepens at GOP retreat”

The Hill: “Cheney’s public break with McCarthy came at the opening of the House Republicans’ annual policy retreat in Orlando. It highlighted the widening gulf between Cheney, the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress, and McCarthy, the top House Republican leader, at a gathering intended to unify the party behind a common agenda and 2022 campaign message.”

Kevin McCarthy, the man pundits bafflingly claim is going to be able to flip the House for Republicans, has been dragged for ceding control of his caucus to the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and defending Trump’s response to the January 6 insurrection. 

Daily Beast: “Kevin McCarthy’s Strategy to Rein In GOP Extremists: Don’t. The House Republican leader has taken a hands-off approach as his conference moves further to the, uh, right.”

Washington Post: “House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) continued to defend former president Donald Trump’s response to the Jan. 6 insurrection, claiming in an interview Sunday that Trump was unaware the U.S. Capitol was being stormed until McCarthy called and urged him to tell his supporters to stop.”

The Nation: “Kevin McCarthy Humiliates Himself Again. Covering up Trump’s role in the January 6 violence, he’s now vying to be speaker of the Insurrection.”