The week
High-profile Republicans reportedly expanded to discuss forming their own center-right party
High-level Republicans who disagree with the party’s far-right tendency may be heading for the door. Last week, 120 former elected Republican Party officials, ambassadors and strategists, as well as members of previous Republican presidential administrations, allegedly met in a major Zoom call. They discussed initial plans to form a “center-right separatist party” to promote “principled conservatism”, presenting candidates in some races and endorsing Democrats, Republicans and independents who match their values in others, people involved told Reuters . Evan McMullin, the former chief policy officer for the House Republican Conference who ran for president as an independent in 2016, co-hosted the conference call, he told Reuters. “Much of the Republican Party is radicalizing and threatening American democracy,” he said. “The party must either commit itself again to the truth, reason and founding ideals, or clearly there must be something new.” Jason Miller, a spokesman for former President Donald Trump, however, called the group “losers”, while Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel indicated in a statement that the party needs to “unite” if it wants to win in 2022. The conversation comes after the Republican Party dismissed thousands of members in the wake of the Capitol riot. Since January, more than 140,000 people have left the Republican Party in the 25 states with registration data available, reports The New York Times; 19 states do not register voters by party. Pennsylvania saw 12,000 voters change their membership, while the Republican Party of Arizona lost 10,000. Trump narrowly lost those states in 2020, and the Arizona Republican Party has since targeted the Republicans who have not contested the election results. More stories from theweek.comThe most important person in the impeachment trial is missing. It’s not Trump.5 Brutally funny cartoons about the distorted logic of Republican impeachment. Would the Capitol mob kill Mike Pence?