Cassandra, Political Crack, Stupid Republican Tricks, The Darnold

Lindsey Graham Was Right

On May 3, 2016 Lindsey Graham tweeted:

If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.

As it turns out, he was right because TFG is well on his way to destroying the current GOP, as well as killing the GOP’s 2024 campaign across the board.

The first thing TFG needed to do was to take control of the party’s financial arm, which he completed a few weeks ago. Evidently the cash cow wasn’t generating enough money for his legal bills and other debts, so on Wednesday he instituted a new Republican National Committee rule:

In a letter received by Republican digital vendors this week, the Trump campaign is asking for down-ballot candidates who use his name, image and likeness in fundraising appeals to give at least 5 percent of the proceeds to the campaign.

“Beginning tomorrow, we ask that all candidates and committees who choose to use President Trump’s name, image, and likeness split a minimum of 5% of all fundraising solicitations to Trump National Committee JFC. This includes but is not limited to sending to the house file, prospecting vendors, and advertising,” Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita wrote in the letter, which is dated April 15.

They add: “Any split that is higher than 5% will be seen favorably by the RNC and President Trump’s campaign and is routinely reported to the highest levels of leadership within both organizations.”

That money is being put to good use…if you’re TFG:

Trump’s joint fundraising committee wrote three checks in February and one in March to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, totaling $411,287 and another in March to Trump National Doral Miami for $62,337, according to a report filed to the Federal Election Commission this week.

TFG is skimming cream from the down ballot candidates because campaign donations follow the candidates who are most likely to win, and that’s not him. Here’s a snapshot of the 10 most competitive Senate races:

And TFG’s stranglehold on campaign cash has real, on the ground, consequences:

Flush with $71 million cash at the end of February — more than twice that of Trump’s campaign — Biden parlayed his fundraising advantage into a hiring spree that now boasts 300 paid staffers across nine states and 100 offices in parts of the country that will decide the 2024 election, according to details provided by the campaign.

Trump’s advisers would not disclose staffing levels, but his ground game still seems to be at a nascent stage. His campaign hired state directors in Pennsylvania and Michigan last week, people familiar with the recruitment process said.

Combined, the Trump campaign and Republican National Committee have fewer than five staff members in each of the battleground states, said two Republicans familiar with the committee and the Trump campaign’s organizational structures in 2020 and 2024.

Successful campaigns require organization, and that’s not happening in TFG’s campaign. In addition, he’s killing future GOP presidential campaigns by letting all local campaigns wither on the vine, because political organization needs to be kept up.

But TFG’s damage isn’t just limited to the mechanics and funding of down ballot candidates and their ground games. He’s emboldened some really ugly rhetoric, and most recently, he’s poured fire on the one issue that has consistently defeated Republicans since the Dobbs decision came down:  abortion. TFG proudly took ownership of his role in the Dobbs decision, and this only enabled the extremists who are state-level Republicans.

I’ve written a lot about the various lawsuits and legislation that have sought to essentially ban abortion, but I didn’t write anything about the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to let a Civil War era law banning abortion stand, mostly because it’s so infuriating and tiring. But then this happened after legislation to overturn that law failed, and here I am:

The GOP is essentially broke. It has no ability to start and run effective campaigns in battleground states. And now it has fully embraced the cruelty of taking rights from people and then rubbing their noses in it. The GOP is going to be soundly defeated this fall, and possibly destroyed as a viable political party. And they will deserve it—Lindsey’s right about that, too.

This seems about right to close this out:

3 thoughts on “Lindsey Graham Was Right”

  2. I read somewhere that the Arizona ban abortion bill also sets the age of consent at 11.

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