Republicans on Thursday intensified their public criticism of former US president Donald Trump, with some saying it was time for the party to move on after an unexpectedly poor showing in Tuesday’s midterm elections, even as he prepared to launch a third White House bid next week.
Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, once a vocal Trump supporter, said voters had sent “a very clear message” that ”enough is enough.”
“The voters have spoken and they have said that they want a different leader. And a true leader understands when they have become a liability,” she told Fox Business. “A true leader understands that it’s time to step off the stage. It is time to move on.”
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Earle-Sears, who served as cochair of a group called Black Americans to Re-elect President Trump in 2020, also said she “just couldn’t” support another Trump campaign.
Some advisers had urged Trump to delay his planned announcement until after a Dec. 6 US Senate runoff election in Georgia that could determine which party controls the Senate to avoid turning the race into a referendum on him and unintentionally helping Democrats.
However, Trump, rebuffing that advice, on Thursday invited reporters to a “special announcement” at his Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday.
That leaves him trying to launch a comeback bid at a time when he finds himself in a position of extraordinary vulnerability after dominating the party since he won the nomination to run for president in 2016.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who easily won re-election on Tuesday, is gaining new attention as Republicans openly weigh moving on from Trump.
US Senator John Thune, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, noted Trump’s role in lifting some controversial candidates during primaries earlier this year who went on to lose in the elections.
Thune said there is “no substitute for good quality candidates.”
Thune said he hoped the party would begin to see the emergence of younger leaders.
“You can’t have a party that’s built around one person’s personality,” he said.
Former US House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan, who clashed with Trump during the former president’s first two years in office, called Trump “a drag on our ticket” who would hurt the party’s chances in 2024.
“We want to win the White House and we know with Trump we’re so much more likely to lose,” he said. “If we have a nominee not named Trump, we’re so much more likely to win the White House than if our nominee is Trump.”
Retiring US Senator Pat Toomey also blamed Trump’s intervention for Republican losses in his state of Pennsylvania and noted that Trump-endorsed candidates did notably worse than other Republicans on the ballot.
“I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria for selecting candidates, we’re probably not gonna do really well,” he said on CNN. “All over the country there’s a very high correlation between [pro-Trump] candidates and big losses or at least dramatically underperforming.”
However, Trump allies provided statements on the former president’s behalf.
“I am proud to endorse Donald J. Trump for President in 2024. I fully support him running again,” US Representative Elise Stefanik, who chairs the House Republican Conference, said in a statement. “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America, who has a proven track record of conservative governance.”
Trump’s decision to move forward now is driven, in part, by his desire to try to lock in support to try to halt the rise of DeSantis, whom he has long considered his most formidable potential foe.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden, who turns 80 this month and is the oldest president in US history, said he intends to run for a second term in 2024 despite calls by some members of his party for him to hand the reins to a new generation of leaders.
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