Never Trump Republicans Plot to Give Democrats the Senate Majority

Never Trump super PAC the Lincoln Project and other anti-Trump Republicans continue to plot to not only take down President Donald Trump, but also the Senate Republican majority, according to a report released on Saturday.

Never Trump Republicans believe that preventing a second term for Trump is insufficient, and that Senate Republicans must also pay the price of backing the 45th president.

Steve Schmidt, who works for the Never Trump Lincoln Project, said, “The analogy would be in the same way that fire purifies the forest, it needs to be burned to the ground and fundamentally repudiated. Every one of them should be voted out of office, with the exception of Mitt Romney.”

To wage their war on the Republican Party, the Lincoln Project announced six-figure ad buys against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Martha McSally (R-AZ). The latter three senators face competitive Senate races this November.

Breitbart News reported in June that the Lincoln Project endorsed Montana Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock’s bid to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT).

“Bullock represents the best of America’s ideals,” John Weaver, one of the Lincoln Group’s cofounders, said. “He cares about his constituents and works every day to make sure their lives are better. The Lincoln Project is proud to support Steve Bullock and usher in a new era of decent, fair, and honest leadership.”

Jennifer Horn, a former New Hampshire GOP chairwoman who advises the Lincoln Project, said that Senate Republicans had the “authority and the ability” challenge Trump, but chose not to.

“The only way to make sure that Trumpism doesn’t continue to rule the Republican Party for years to come is to make sure that we defeat not only the president, but those people who have enabled him,” she added.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), who launched a failed bid for president this cycle, said that he plans to announce his Bravery Project next week, which will target Republicans in battleground states such as Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Walsh said:

Trump has to lose and every Republican senator up for reelection has to lose because they’ve enabled. Do I want the Democrats to take control of the Senate? No. But I have no choice. To me, these Republicans like Martha McSally and Thom Tillis and Susan Collins have breached their office.

It means the Democrats will be in control of D.C. and they will try to push policies I disagree with. That will leave someone like me fighting against their policies. I don’t look forward to that, but that will be the necessary result.

Bill Kristol — a Never Trump neoconservative, former editor of the Weekly Standard, and adviser to the Republican Voters Against Trump — said that helping give the Democrats the Senate majority would be restrained by their own, more moderate members.

“Life is full of imperfect choices. Even if Democrats have 52 senators, several are going to be John Hickenlooper, Mark Warner, Michael Bennet, who are pretty moderate Democrats,” Kristol said.

He added, “They still believe in a free market system. I think the cartoon version of the Democratic Party on Fox News and conservative outlets ?— that’s not going to be the party that governs.”