Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears said she will not support former President Donald Trump when he declares his candidacy for the White House next week, as other Republicans are abandoning the 2020 election loser like rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Republican Representative-elect-Michael Lawler said that it is time for the GOP to move on from Trump, the latest message in a growing series of recriminations for the former president.
“I would like to see the party move forward,” said Lawler, who defeated New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the arm, a major upset of a sitting Democratic
“I would like to see the party move forward,” said Lawler, who defeated New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “I think any time you are focused on the future, you can’t so much go to the past.”
During an appearance on Fox News, Sears told Neil Cavuto that Trump had a number of accomplishments, but she said voters in the midterm elections demonstrated that they want the Republican Party to have a different leader.
“I could not support him. I just couldn’t,” said Sears, a 58-year-old Jamaican-born immigrant whose 2021 lieutenant gubernatorial campaign in Virginia featured a photo of her carrying a rifle.
Two days after Tuesday’s mid-term elections were held on November 8, the United States is still waiting to learn the new composition of Congress.
President Joe Biden congratulated himself on having escaped the crushing defeat many prognosticators anticipated, but the Democrat will probably have to deal with a House of Representatives in the hands of Republicans, which will complicate the rest of his term.
On the Senate side, it will take at least several days for one of the two camps to triumph and the final composition of the US Senate is not going to be known until after a runoff election in Georgia.
A disappointing result for most Republicans turned into a very good night for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who not only won a second term in Tuesday’s midterm elections but also became the first Republican to carry Miami-Dade County in two decades.
DeSantis is widely perceived to be on a path to replace Trump as GOP standard bearer, and he has come under attack by the petulant
“The Fake News asks him if he’s going to run if President Trump runs, and he says, ‘I’m only focused on the Governor’s race, I’m not looking into the future,'” said Trump of his likely rival for the 2024 nomination. “Well, in terms of loyalty and class, that’s really not the right answer.”
“Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017—he was politically dead, losing in a landslide …” said the petulant Trump. “Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win.”
Trump has taken multiple shots at the Florida governor recently, calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious” at a Pennsylvania rally.
DeSantis’ résumé is more of a run-of-the-mill Republican civil servant than the bombastic-businessman-turned-political-arsonist Trump.
DeSantis has condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and was critical of President Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan. He is also strongly opposed to traditional U.S. foes like Iran, notably opposing the nuclear deal with that country, as well as newer rivals like China, and has pledged to be “the most pro-Israel governor in America.”
“Republican chairmen across a wide spectrum of states were counting on Donald Trump to deliver victory for them last night and he didn’t. They are let down,” said David Urban, a longtime Trump ally who appears to find DeSantis more attractive. “It is clear the center of gravity of the Republican Party is in the state of Florida, and I don’t mean Mar-a-Lago.”
Trump advisers are urging him to delay his promised “very big announcement” that is scheduled for Tuesday at his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, but the former president has been eager to jump into the 2024 race, even planning to do so on the eve of the midterms.
A seemingly desperate Trump attacked various news outlets that had previously amplified his fiery rhetoric and lies, including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post.
Two DeSantis allies predicted the governor would campaign for Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff and wait until Florida’s legislative session ends in May to announce a White House bid, but if Trump delays his announcement the upstart Republican could declare his candidacy early to steal the thunder.
It is not as if Republicans who want to move on show any hint of atoning for Trump’s attack on American democracy, but they see the immediate loss of close elections as the fault of the leader who ran roughshod over the GOP establishment in 2016 and transformed an agenda rooted in strong national defense to one of isolation and embracing despotism, and from fiscal responsibility to unprecedented deficit spending.
You must log in to post a comment.