Happening this Friday: The White House is increasing the war room to fight a possible impeachment… Republicans want more details on Mitch McConnell’s health… Clarence Thomas reveals trips billionaire Harlan Crow paid for… And Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy have campaigned more since then than any other GOP candidate in last week’s debate, according to NBC’s Emily Gold.
But FIRST… The MAGA movement — along with Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid and his enduring influence — hasn’t exactly been kind to Republican parties across the country.
Just look at Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp has had to reject calls by some state Republican lawmakers to indict Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis for her role in the indictment of Trump.
“The bottom line is that in the state of Georgia, as long as I’m governor, we will obey the law and the constitution, regardless of who it helps or hurts politically,” Kemp said. “In recent years, some inside and outside of this building may have forgotten that. But I can assure you that is not the case.”
Or look at Michigan, whose state Republican party is led by voter denier Kristina Karamo — who lost the contest for secretary of state last year — and is mired in internal infighting and struggling to raise money.
“It’s not going really well, and you just have to look at the facts,” Republican Rep. Lisa McClain told the New York Times. “The opportunity to raise money, we have a lot of donors sitting on the sidelines. That’s not an opinion. That’s fact. It’s just a fact. We have to fix that.”
Or look at Texas (with the impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton) or Arizona (where the likes of Kari Lake and Blake Masters haven’t left the stage yet).
And it appears to be having a financial impact as well, as key Republican Party bank accounts in the states are dwindling.
With more than a year until the 2024 general election, state Republican parties are fighting among themselves, as Matthew Continetti of the American Enterprise Institute put it on MTP NOW yesterday.
“When the party becomes Trump-oriented, you see it almost like a sun going nova; it’s collapsing on itself,” Continetti said.
And look at the election results in all these states except Texas: Republicans in Georgia have now lost three US Senate campaigns; Michigan Republicans have been barred from statewide races since 2016; and the Arizona Republicans have suffered defeat after defeat.
Notably, the same GOP-GOP divide exists in DC, but it hasn’t caused the same level of disruption as it has in the states.
Well, at least not yet – because a government shutdown and a possible impeachment of the president remain an issue for the next few months.
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The number of the day is … 12
That’s how many campaign events South Carolina businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican Senator Tim Scott have conducted since the GOP debate last week, according to NBC News’ Emily Gold.
That’s more than anyone else in the rest of the field as Ramaswamy tries to keep the debate alive (even as his rivals keep attacking him) and Scott tries to gain ground after a quiet debate performance.
Other Numbers You Should Know
17: On Thursday, Joe Biggs, a leader of the Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy during the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, was sentenced to several years in prison.
Two dozen: The number of attorneys, advisers and other staff members who are part of a new White House war room designed to respond to demands from House Republicans for Biden’s impeachment.
3: The number of trips from 2022 that Judge Clarence Thomas gave in his annual financial report that billionaire Harlan Crow paid for.
Recommended
12: The number of Mexican states that have decriminalized abortion.
At least 91,000: According to The Washington Post, how many migrants were detained by border guards in August as they crossed the US-Mexico border as part of a family, an all-time high?
400: The number of U.S. troops who will remain at the U.S.-Mexico border through September 30 to assist law enforcement there, report NBC News’ Courtney Kube and Julia Ainsley.
4.7%: The proportion of overdose deaths related to counterfeit drugs has more than doubled in 2021 since mid-2019, according to the CDC.
2: The number of people who pleaded guilty to various counts involving threats against government officials in the days following the 2020 election on Thursday.
Looking ahead to 2024: Tim Scott downplays ‘racial divide’
At an event in Iowa on Thursday, Sen. Tim Scott, RS.C., downplayed the notion that this country is segregated and accused “the left” of weaponizing racial differences among Americans, according to Nnamdi Egwuonwu of NBC News.
“However, there is an insidious force that benefits from using race and class as a weapon against the American people. It’s a radical force on the left that’s benefiting from the fact that we all feel stuck in cultural quicksand,” Scott told a constituent who asked him how he could heal “racial segregation” in the US
Scott, the only black candidate in the Republican presidential race according to Egwuonwu and the only black person in the room at Thursday’s event, has downplayed the idea that there is a racial divide in this country since he entered the race.
“From cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” Scott said in campaign ads while running for Senate re-election last year, referring to his grandfather, who picked cotton and later watched Scott become an elected official.
In ads he ran this year as part of his presidential campaign, he cited his own story as anti-segregation evidence.
“It pains my soul to see the Biden Liberals attack every rung of the ladder that helped me climb. The far left says we are a bad country in decline. I say the truth of my life refutes your lies,” he tells viewers in a TV commercial.
Scott’s comments at Thursday’s event came as he expanded his schedule in Iowa and attended multiple events this week after appearing at just four events in the state in July, Egwuonwu reports.
In other campaign news…
Don’t knock: NBC News’ Allan Smith and Natasha Korecki reported that the pro-DeSantis Never Back Down Super PAC is halting doorknocks in Nevada and California (as well as other Super Tuesday states) as it shifts its focus to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina doubles.
Hurricane Policy: Politico is reporting on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “complicated relationship with disaster relief efforts,” while President Joe Biden is due to travel to Florida on Saturday after a hurricane swept across the state earlier this week.
Don’t support the blue: One of former President Donald Trump’s top aides in New Hampshire said during a video shot near the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that police officers should “hang themselves.”
On offense: Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is out with a new campaign ad attacking his opponent, Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, on the abortion issue. “When a woman or a girl becomes pregnant as a result of rape, the trauma is unimaginable. Daniel Cameron thinks a nine-year-old rape survivor should be forced into childbirth. No one, no child, should ever have to go through that,” Jefferson County Prosecutor Erin White said in the ad.
All in the family: NBC News’ Julie Tsirkin reports that the daughter of West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has become one of his key advisors as he charts his political path forward.
ICYMI: What else is happening in the world:
Ukrainian forces have made progress in a slowly advancing front-line counteroffensive against Russia, Ukrainian military officials said.
The US Capitol physician said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was “medically cleared” to continue his duties after he froze to death at an event in Kentucky earlier this week.
The Texas Supreme Court has allowed new state law to go into effect banning sex-based childcare.
CORRECTION (9:30 AM ET): A previous version of this article misrepresented the title of Michigan Republican Lisa McClain. She is a member of the US House of Representatives.
