As Republican National Committee members gathered last week for their winter meeting, RNC co-chair Tommy Hicks told attendees the party “must remain united.” He added that it’s incumbent on likeminded partisans “to bring Republicans of all stripes together so we can win.”
There was a degree of irony to the rhetoric. Soon after Hicks made the comments, RNC members made the party a little less united, approving a censure resolution that condemned two sitting House Republicans — Wyoming’s Liz Cheney and Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger — for serving on the bipartisan House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Making matters considerably worse, the RNC’s censure resolution accused the pair — lifelong Republicans with conservative voting records — of engaging in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
It wasn’t long before the Republican backlash against Cheney and Kinzinger created its own Republican backlash.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski seemed especially unnerved by the text of the RNC’s resolution. Referring to the Jan. 6 riot, the senator said over the weekend, “As Americans we must acknowledge those tragic events, and we cannot allow a false narrative to be created. We cannot deny the truth — to suggest it was ‘legitimate political discourse’ is just wrong.”
Texas Sen. John Cornyn added that referring to Jan. 6 as “legitimate political discourse” was “not an accurate description.”
The censure resolution has generated related criticism from some in the party. Politico reported overnight, “Senate Republicans are not happy with the Republican National Committee.”
In interviews on Monday evening, GOP senators lashed out at their own national party’s overwhelming vote to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) for working on the House’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. They warned that alienating a portion of the party for being overly anti-Trump is not a political winner heading into the midterms, a sharp message from sitting members that goes far beyond criticism already aired by a handful of GOP pundits.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney acknowledged having texted RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel — who happens to be his niece — to express his dissatisfaction with the censure vote, while South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Republicans move in the “wrong direction” when they’re looking backwards instead of focusing on the 2022 midterm elections.
On the other hand, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul expressed some support for the RNC’s move — the senator told Politico he would “include Liz Cheney and Kinzinger as basically Democrats now,” which is bizarre given how conservative they are on substantive issues — while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley also appeared sympathetic to the party’s recent efforts.
Can’t you just feel the “unity”?
If Democrats are lucky, Republicans will spend the next several months targeting each other — and at times, targeting each other for having targeted each other — which will have the effect of drowning out any kind of election-year message the party might want to take to voters. But whether that happens or not, it’s difficult to envision a constructive endgame here. The Republican National Committee has already censured two of their own House members without cause. The party has already condemned the Jan. 6 committee for engaging in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” The RNC has already become a vehicle for Trumpian nonsense. Sure, a modest backlash has taken shape, but to what end? It’s not as if the RNC is going to undo its censure resolution or apologize for its rhetoric about Jan. 6. I imagine the text the RNC chair received from her uncle was unpleasant, but will it change the party’s direction or tactics? I suspect not. In other words, the damage is already done, and some complaints from a group of senators, along with complaints from a handful of governors, won’t change anything. Perhaps, the argument goes, the RNC will be more responsible in the future after feeling so much pushback in the wake of Friday’s vote. That’s possible. But given the fact that these criticisms have no practical value, what’s to stop Republicans from being every bit as radical going forward as they were last week? Will McDaniel and her cohorts really feel chastened after seeing a handful of disappointed quotes from a handful of disappointed senators?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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