In the United States, opposing Donald Trump within the Republican Party can be very costly. The former president now has a political revenge against the ten Republican parliamentarians who voted in favor of his the impeachment process after the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Midterm elections will be held in November where the 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be contested. At the end of the primaries that are currently taking place to designate the candidates for this election, only two of the ten who voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump are still in the race to retain their seats.
Evidence of Donald Trump’s influence in the GOP and adherence to conspiracy rhetoric about the Capitol invasion and the 2020 election of Joe Biden from the now largely Trumpist Republican voting base.
The 2020 election remains at the center of the ballot
“Two years ago I won that primary with 73% of the vote. I could have done it again, it was easy. (But) I would have had to accept President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. I would have had to tolerate his continued efforts to destroy our democratic system and attack the foundations of our republic. It is a path that I did not want to choose and that I could not follow, “said Liz Cheney this Tuesday during her defeat in the Republican primaries in her state of Wyoming.
Liz Cheney was Donald Trump’s most symbolic opponent within her own party. She is one of the ten Republican representatives who voted in favor of thethe impeachment process and he is above all vice-president of the investigation commission of the insurrection of January 6, 2021.
The former president had thus launched a revenge against the one who was seeking her fourth term in the House of Representatives and who, however, defended ultra-conservative theses – on weapons, abortion or the climate – close to those of Donald Trump.
However, the billionaire managed to turn the political debate around two issues: the invasion of the Capitol and the denial of the result of Joe Biden’s election. Therefore, Liz Cheney’s opposition on these points was enough to cost her her seat. Unsurprisingly, it was Harriet Hageman, a Trump champion endorsed by the former president, who largely won the Republican primary in Wyoming.
Donald Trump’s Accusers Defeated
For Donald Trump, therefore, it is time for revenge. It is also proof that he is succeeding in reshaping the Republican Party in his own way, with a base sincerely convinced that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Joe Biden and with candidates willing to do anything to get his support.
It must “take as political fact that the vast majority of Republican voters are Trumpians, convinced of the theft of the 2020 election and not to undermine Capitol Hill,” wrote on Twitter Corentin Sellin, specialist in American politics.
Because Liz Cheney is not the only one to have suffered this fate. First of all, four of the ten Republican deputies who opposed Donald Trump chose not to run for a new term in the next election. Three of them stated reasons related to their vote in favor of thethe impeachment process: death threats, hostility or fear for their loved ones.
Three others, in addition to Liz Cheney, have lost in recent weeks to pro-Trump candidates, backed by the former president. By way of illustration, during Tom Rice’s defeat in South Carolina, Donald Trump stated that “the biggest news of the night so far is that Russell Fry has beaten the master ofthe impeachment process Tom Rice with a vote of more than 51%, thus winning resoundingly without the need for a second round”.
The latter two managed in extremis to save their skins during the primaries, thanks in particular to favorable voting methods. Furthermore, the two of them tried to avoid the focus on their vote for thethe impeachment process, Politico points out, when others, like Liz Cheney, have made their support for this vote a central part of their campaign. Unsuccessfully.
Trumpism embraced by the Republican Party
The dogma of Trumpism, therefore, seems to have been adopted by Republican activists: all those who oppose their leader are considered traitors and are swept away in these elections. The moderate fringe of the party is reeling.
“In 18 months, far from disappearing after the insurrection on Capitol Hill, Donald Trump has instilled his nationalist and anti-system doctrine in the entire Republican Party that he has in hand”, analyzes Corentin Sellin.
Beyond the eviction of deputies who votedthe impeachment processaccording to a count Washington PostIn the six states where the 2020 election was played, candidates who deny the legitimacy of this election won nearly two-thirds of the Republican vote in these primaries.
Results that underscore Donald Trump’s influence in the party and also how to curry favor with him and emulate his attitude, including expressing doubts about the integrity of the election, has become a common tactic among candidates seeking to win elections. primaries, CNBC reports, and later a seat in Congress.
Source: BFM TV
