The party of morality and law has become the party of defending accused sexual predators and attacking law enforcement.
Once the party of morality and national security, Republican leaders this week found themselves defending a casino magnate accused of coercing sexual favors and a White House attacking the FBI.
Then they capped it off by putting more of their donors’ money into the president’s pocket when they held a dinner at his Washington hotel Thursday night.
Welcome to the Trump National Committee’s winter agenda, say the party’s estranged members.
“It’s not the Republican Party anymore. It’s the Trump Party,” said Colorado activist Kendal Unruh, who led an effort to dump then-nominee Donald Trump at the party convention in 2016. “It’s not the party that I knew, but it’s the party they have become.”
Because returning cash collected under their former finance chairman Steve Wynn, the casino magnate, would spur more questions about the sexual misconduct allegations against the president himself, the money’s not going back, some Republican National Committee members acknowledged privately. Because Trump is under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, they added, the party must support the president’s attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice.
“I can’t be part of all this garbage,” said a former RNC member who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wants to remain involved in Republican politics at the state level. “The hardest thing to do in life is admit when you were wrong. That has sort of taken over. They don’t want to admit that they were totally hoodwinked by this guy.”
Wynn resigned his party position a week ago. In her public statement on the matter, RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel noted that she accepted his resignation, but made no mention of the Wall Street Journal report last week detailing accusations that he had coerced sexual favors from women in his employ.
