Now Is The Time To Boot Failed GOP Leaders, Not Bicker About Trump Vs. DeSantis

Anyone who cares about the Republican Party needs to understand that the ongoing campaign to blame the midterms on Donald Trump and throw support behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for 2024 is a GOP establishment scheme to avoid responsibility for their own failures.

Forget about the Trump versus DeSantis question for a minute. Right now, the far more important and pressing task at hand is to hold Sen. Mitch McConnell, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and other GOP leaders like Rep. Tom Emmer, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chair, accountable for their massive failures this election cycle. 

Any time wasted speculating on the 2024 primary is time not spent talking about McConnell’s dereliction of duty as the leader of the GOP — not just his horrible funding decisions during the midterms but also the past two years of facilitating President Biden’s agenda. 

As my colleague Tristan Justice argued in these pages last week, McConnell didn’t just prioritize his allies over winning a majority in the midterms, long before the cycle began he capitulated to Biden’s agenda, helping to raise the debt limit, pass a massive infrastructure package, and facilitate a CHIPS Act that benefits corrupt special interests. McConnell’s success in appointing federal judges is admirable and will stand as his legacy, but now that Democrats have secured a Senate majority that legacy might well be eclipsed by Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has proven just as adept as McConnell at confirming judges. 

And then there’s McCarthy. As House Republicans meet this week to elect a new speaker, rumors are swirling about a plan among conservative members to derail McCarthy’s bid for the speakership. Good. It isn’t even clear at this point whether Republicans will win a majority, and if they do it will be razor-thin, narrower than Democrats’ current eight-seat majority. As minority leader, the lion’s share of blame falls on McCarthy, who should have come up with something better for Republicans to run on than his anodyne and uninspiring “commitment to America.”

But McConnell and McCarthy aren’t the only ones whose feet need to be held to the fire. The dust hadn’t even settled after Election Day when Emmer, a complete RINO from Minnesota who should be kicked out of the Republican Party altogether, launched his bid for House GOP whip, the third-highest ranking position in a Republican House majority. As head of the NRCC, it was Emmer’s job to ensure Republicans won House races, a task he miserably failed.

As Nate Hochman explained recently in National Review, Emmer, who has chaired the NRCC since 2019, “has already fallen far short in his position as chairman of the NRCC, and his shadow campaign for whip during the closing months of the campaign demonstrates a willingness to place his own interests over those of his caucus. He has not earned a promotion.”

If the disastrous midterm results weren’t by themselves enough to disqualify Emmer, his arrogant response to the outcome, that House Republicans should just be happy to be in

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