By Tim Reid
(Reuters) – Dozens of Republicans under former President George W. Bush are leaving the party, dismayed at the failure of many elected Republicans to repudiate Donald Trump after his false allegations of electoral fraud sparked a deadly attack on US Capitol Hill. USA last month.
These officials, some who served in the highest echelons of the Bush administration, said they hoped a defeat by Trump would lead party leaders to step aside from the former president and denounce his baseless allegations that the November presidential election was stolen.
But with most Republican lawmakers joining Trump, these officials say they no longer recognize the party they served. Some have ended their membership, others are letting it expire while some are recently registered as independent, according to a dozen former Bush employees who spoke to Reuters.
“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I would call it a cult of Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, who was Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration.
Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House communications office for six years, said that about 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with him from conversations he has been having. “The number is growing by the day,” said Purcell.
His defection from the Republican Party after a lifetime of service to many is another clear sign of how a growing intra-party conflict over Trump and his legacy is fragmenting him.
The party is currently trapped between dissatisfied and independent moderate Republicans, revolted by Trump’s control over the elected, and Trump’s fervently loyal base. Without enthusiastic support from both groups, the party will struggle to win national elections, according to polls, Republican officials and strategists.
The Republican National Committee referred to Reuters for a recent interview that its president, Ronna McDaniel, gave to Fox Business. “We are having a little fight now. But let’s be together. We need it, ”said McDaniel, predicting that the party will unite against the agenda of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Trump representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
A representative of former President Bush did not respond to a request for comment. During Trump’s presidency, Bush made it clear that he had “retired from politics”.
‘IT’S HORRORING’
More than half of the Republicans in Congress – eight senators and 139 House representatives – voted to block the election’s certification just hours after the Capitol siege.
Most Republican senators also indicated that they would not support Trump’s impeachment, making it almost certain that the former president will not be convicted at his Senate trial. Trump was impeached on January 13 by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on charges of “inciting insurrection,” the only president to be impeached twice.
The unwillingness of party leaders to repudiate Trump was the last straw for some former Republican officials.
“If it continues to be Trump’s party, many of us will not be back,” Rosario Marin, a former United States treasurer under the Bush administration, told Reuters. “Unless the Senate condemns him and gets rid of Trump cancer, many of us will not be voting for Republican leaders again.”
Two former Bush officials who spoke to Reuters said they believed it was important to stay with the party to free it from Trump’s influence.
One, Suzy DeFrancis, a veteran of the Republican Party who served in governments including those of ex-presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, said she voted for Biden in November, but that splitting the party now will only benefit Democrats.
“I fully understand why people are frustrated and want to leave the party. I have had this feeling for 4 years,” said DeFrancis.
But she said it is essential that the party unite around republican principles, such as limited government, personal responsibility, free enterprise and strong national defense.
Purcell said that many feel they have no choice, however. He referred to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman Republican congressman from Georgia who promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, who falsely claims that leading Democrats belong to a secret conspiracy of Satan-worshiping pedophiles. Another newly elected deputy, Lauren Boebert, from Colorado, also made statements of support about QAnon.
“We have QAnon members in Congress. It’s terrible,” said Purcell.
(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Grant McCool)