Trump’s allies warn that holdouts in Senate leadership may be taking a huge political gamble.
“The biggest risk is that voters see them as disloyal to the party’s core message going in 2024,” said Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a 2016 Trump skeptic who is now one of his biggest boosters. “That is a real risk. And that’s why I’ve encouraged a lot of folks to endorse the former president.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is taking perhaps the most obvious stance by avoiding Trump. The two have had no relationship since the Capitol riot of 2021. Trump rarely misses a chance to take personal potshots at the Kentuckian, while McConnell only occasionally even discusses anything about Trump at all.
…
The most urgent decision belongs to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, the No. 4 Senate Republican who could find herself at the top rungs of conference leadership in the coming years. Ernst is staying unaligned as the Iowa Caucuses approach, and she’s not sure what she will do next week if Trump translates his polling leads to a win in her state.
“We’ll see,” Ernst said in an interview. “I just have to remain neutral through the caucuses. And then we want to see who the nominee is actually going to be. But there’s a lot to be decided between now and then.”
…
Assessing the groundswell of support on the Hill for the former president, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) lamented that “Republicans are giving up … why shouldn’t we demand the best this country can offer?”
“There is room for an alternative to Trump versus Biden if we make that space, but we so pigeonhole ourselves into thinking that those are our two choices. We’ve already done that before a single primary has happened,” Murkowski said. “Makes you wonder why we do the primaries.”
…
