A longtime adviser to Donald Trump said the former president will be “actively involved” in Republican Party politics going forward. And that includes supporting primary challenges against those who crossed Trump.
“The president continues to have tremendous support and approval among Republican voters in the primaries. He continues to have hundreds of millions of dollars in his campaign account, which he can use. And he will continue to be actively involved in recruiting candidates and holding accountabilities. elected officials by their votes, “Corey Lewandowski told Fox News on Thursday.
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Lewandowski, who administered Trump’s presidential campaign in the 2016 primaries and served as a top adviser in the 2020 re-election effort, also rejected suggestions that the former president would form a dissident party, saying “I don’t think the president has any interest to be part of a third party. “
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Wednesday, January 20, 2021. (Photo by AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Lewandowski spoke to Fox News hours before Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a big supporter and Trump ally, had a meeting scheduled in the state capital in Wyoming to target Rep. Liz Cheney in his home state. Cheney, the president of the House Republican Conference, is facing calls from most House Republicans to be stripped of her number three leadership position. The decision came after she was the best known of the 10 Republicans who two weeks ago joined all 222 Democrats in the House to vote for Trump’s impeachment on charges of inciting the January 6 uprising on the U.S. Capitol.
On Wednesday night, on the eve of Gaetz’s trip to Wyoming, the former president’s political leadership committee, Save America, released a poll that suggested that Cheney was politically wounded among Republicans for his vote on impeachment of Trump.
Gaetz told Fox News and other news organizations on Monday, “I haven’t spoken to the president since he left Washington, but I understand that he is encouraging my efforts.” He added that “I speak regularly with many members of the Trump family. I have shared with them that I am going to Wyoming and received nothing but encouragement.”
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Asked if there was any coordination, Lewandowski said that “our plan has been in place for a long time”.
Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Is calling for a temporary suspension of US Capitol tours while the coronavirus continues to spread. (Photo by: William B. Plowman / NBC / NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)
Pointing to the poll, he emphasized: “I think Liz Cheney is realizing that in a state that has a rating of more than 64 Republicans – some argue that it is the most Republican or conservative state in the country – there are real repercussions for voting to impeach someone based on words. “
And he predicted that removing Cheney from his leadership role would likely be one of the topics of conversation on Thursday with Trump who is face to face in Florida with minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy.
In addition to the possibility of losing his leadership position, Cheney is already facing several major challenges for his seat on the Wyoming House.
Lewandowski said Trump would be involved in supporting primary challenges against some of the 10 Republicans who voted against him.
“They will all have primary challenges in my opinion,” said Lewandowski. “I don’t know at what level the president will weigh in each of these races, but I think he will be involved in several of them.”
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And Lewandowski said the poll commissioned by the former president’s political team is only the first, with more polls emerging on other Republicans for re-election in 2022 who did not support Trump’s unsuccessful efforts to reverse his defeat in the presidential election for President Biden.
President Donald Trump’s campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski, center, talks about a court order obtained to grant more access to vote counting operations at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Thursday, November 5, 2020, in Philadelphia, after Tuesday’s election. (AP Photo / Matt Slocum)
Recent national reports have suggested that the former president was in discussions with top political advisers over the formation of a third party – possibly called “The Patriot Party” – that Trump would lead and use to compete with the Republican Party.
But senior adviser to Trump’s 2020 campaign, Jason Miller, told Fox News on Sunday that the former president “made it clear that his goal is to win the House and Senate back to Republicans in 2022.” Miller added that “there is nothing that is being actively planned in relation to an effort outside of that, but it is completely up to the Republican senators if that is something that becomes more serious.”
This appeared to be an implicit warning to Republican senators not to join Senate Democrats in the vote to condemn Trump in the Senate impeachment trial.
Asked about Trump’s prospects of forming a dissident group in the future, Lewandowski said: “I don’t think the president has an interest in being part of a third party.”
“The requirements for accessing ballots for third parties are exceptionally difficult,” he noted. “If the goal is to elect individuals, a third party is not a good vehicle for doing this historically. I think the president will work within the bipartisan structure that currently exists and will be very effective within that structure. “
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Trump has repeatedly promised to play an influential role in the Republican Party in the future, and also flirting with a presidential race in 2024 to try to win back the White House.
Although politically wounded by the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters with the intention of interrupting Biden’s congressional certification of the White House victory – after the then president’s encouragement – the latest poll indicates that Trump remains very popular with Republicans.
“We will see how much influence the president wants to exercise in the future,” said Lewandowski. “I don’t think anyone knows that yet.”
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Lewandowski also said he was not sure whether Trump will attend the next Conservative Political Action Conference.
President Donald Trump embraces the American flag when he arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2019, in Oxon Hill, Md., On March 2, 2019. (AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)
The largest and most influential annual meeting of conservatives – best known by its acronym CPAC – is being held outside the Washington, DC area, for the first time in nearly half a century of history. As Fox News first reported in December, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the confabulation will take place in person in Orlando, Florida, not far from Trump’s home in Palm Beach.
The conference became a mecca for the MAGA world during the Trump era, but Lewandowski said the former president “has not yet determined whether he will attend”.