'It’s an embarrassment': Co-opting of GOP platform committee mirrors RNC 'hostile takeover'

08 July 2024

The Republican National Committee (RNC) was very pro-Donald Trump even before the departure of ex-Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, but it took an especially hyper-MAGA turn with new leadership that includes Chairman Michael Whaley and Co-Chair Lara Trump. And according to the New York Times' Robert Draper, this emphasis on MAGA themes is also showing itself with the GOP's party platform committee.

In an article published on July 8, Draper explains, "The co-opting of the platform committee by Mr. Trump’s campaign operation follows its hostile takeover of the Republican National Committee…. The new leadership fired dozens of RNC staff members. Some were rehired, but only after they gave satisfactory answers to questions, including whether they believed the 2020 election was stolen."

Draper continues, "Growing evidence suggests that the campaign intends to keep the platform committee on a similarly short leash. The committee's policy director and deputy director are two staunch Trump allies: Russ Vought, the former director of Office of Management and Budget during the Trump Administration, and Ed Martin, a prominent social conservative and co-author of a 2016 book titled 'The Conservative Case for Trump.'"

But some Republicans, according to Draper, don't believe the platform committee should be so heavily focused on Trump.

Ex-RNC Chairman and former Montana governor Marc Racicot told the Times, "This isn’t about the triumph of ideas. It's about the triumph of Donald Trump. It's frankly an embarrassment."

Never Trump conservative Michael Steele, another former RNC chairman, stressed that the GOP platform committee will do whatever Donald Trump wants them to do.

Steele told the Times, "If Trump suddenly announced he's pro-choice, they'd say, 'I wish you wouldn't say it so loudly, but OK, sir.'"

Read the New York Times' full article at this link (subscription required).

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