Conditions at the Republican National Committee could be better. The Associated Press reported, for example, that just six months before the first early votes are cast in the 2024 general election, “Trump’s Republican Party has little general election infrastructure to speak of.”
Making matters worse, the RNC has partnered with Donald Trump’s campaign for a joint fundraising operation, but as part of the agreement, donations will go toward the former president’s legal bills before funds reach the party.
It’s against this backdrop that the RNC and its newly installed leadership team is apparently conducting interviews with prospective staffers, and as The Washington Post reported, applicants are apparently confronting an unfortunate line of inquiry.
Those seeking employment at the Republican National Committee after a Trump-backed purge of the committee this month have been asked in job interviews if they believe the 2020 election was stolen, according to people familiar with the interviews, making the false claim a litmus test of sorts for hiring.
According to the Post’s reporting, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, Trump advisers have quizzed multiple employees in recent days “about their views on the last presidential election.”
Evidently, the questions were not just ice-breakers or matters of curiosity.
“But if you say the election wasn’t stolen, do you really think you’re going to get hired?” one former RNC employee asked.
As it turns out, newly minted RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump spoke with NBC News yesterday and said her party is no longer interested in litigating her father-in-law’s 2020 defeat.
“I think we’re past that. I think that’s in the past,” she said, adding, “The past is the past.”
Except, evidently, the past is also the present and the near-future. As the Post’s report summarized, prospective RNC hires have said “agreeing with Trump’s false election claim appears to be a new litmus test for being hired by the party.” Or put another way, if the reporting is accurate, the RNC needs employees, and only election deniers and “big lie” proponents need apply. When CNN asked the party about this, RNC spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said, “Candidates who worked on the front line in battleground states or are currently in states where fraud allegations have been prevalent were asked about their work experience. We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.” That wasn’t exactly a denial. By all appearances, what the RNC needs is competent and qualified staffers. Limiting the employment search to conspiracy theorists and those easily fooled by absurdities doesn’t do the party any favors.
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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