'Reagan is rolling over in his grave': GOP speechwriter bemoans current state of Republican Party

15 November 2023

A longtime Republican speechwriter argues the exits of both Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and former Vice President Mike Pence from the 2024 Republican primary signal an end to positivity and optimism within the GOP.

While speaking to Politico's Adam Wren, former Reagan speechwriter and spokesperson Doug Elmets said if he ran for president in today's Republican Party, Ronald Reagan's poll numbers "would be in [the] single digits."

"Trump hijacked the GOP and I’m almost certain that Reagan is rolling over in his grave at the very thought," said Elmets, who spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

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With Pence and Scott suspending their campaigns, the only candidates remaining are, as Wren wrote, "slash-and-burn culture warriors and angry brawlers" like former President Donald Trump, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. Haley and Ramaswamy exchanged barbs during the most recent debate while discussing the social media platform TikTok. When Ramaswamy pointed out that Haley's daughter still used TikTok despite Haley's promise to ban it, Haley snapped at her opponent, telling him to "leave my daughter out of your voice," adding "you're just scum."

Trump, for his part, has taken to using dehumanizing language to describe his political opponents. In a recent Veteran's Day speech, the 45th president of the United States pledged to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country."

"[T]he threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within," Trump added.

Trump's description of his enemies as "vermin" prompted the Washington Post to compare him to fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough to say the ex-president was "going full-on Hitler."

An anonymous staffer to Tim Scott lamented to Politico that the South Carolina senator's positive tone was unwelcome in the Republican primary.

"Donald Trump is always fighting with somebody," the staffer said. "DeSantis has done a good job of always picking fights with folks, too. But when you look on the other side with Tim Scott and Mike Pence, both of those guys said, 'Alright, let’s have a policy conversation.' Mike Pence and Tim Scott rolled out more policy plans than anybody else. But those are not the things that draw coverage. It’s the fighting that does,"

"If Scott put DeSantis’ name in his mouth, he got coverage," he added. "If he put Donald Trump’s name in his mouth, he got even more coverage."

The next Republican primary debate, hosted by NewsNation, will take place in Tuscaloosa, Alabama on December 6.

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