RINOs are the swing voters who will determine the 2024 election outcome.
There is a growing number of them.
Karl Rove. Trump tweeted to Fox: "GET RID OF KARL ROVE!!!!!"
A Republican is either with Donald Trump or is a RINO, a Republican in Name Only. It did not have to be that way, but Trump insists. He has remade the GOP.
Trump has declared to be RINOs the old guard of Republican officeholders who resist being part of the MAGA tribe. Trump could try to fold RINOs back into his coalition. That would be normal behavior for a party leader. He could say nice things about Nikki Haley and her voters. Trump could praise NATO, at least a little. He could pull back from his statement telling Putin to take whatever the hell he wants. Trump could say that his keeping documents was a misunderstanding and of course he intended to return them. Trump could say the January 6 attack on the Capitol was unintended and that bad apples took over. He isn't doing any of that.
Karl Rove is a Republican strategist. He is a regular commentator on Fox. I don't think that Rove persuades Republicans. That isn't my point. But I do think he reflects the thinking of some of them, including rank and file voters in the political mainstream. It isn't just January 6 that weighs on Karl Rove. It is that Trump is unrepentant and persists in praising what happened on January 6. That forces the hands of Republicans. Being a Republican means one endorses -- or at least tolerates -- a president who endorses overthrowing an election with an attack on the Capitol. That is too much for Rove.
Rove's talk begins at minute 2:50
Here is the text of what Karl Rove said said.
For the worst part, they [the Trump campaign] take January 6th and go hard at it. And they would say he wants to pardon those people who attacked our Capitol.
I worked in that building as a young man. To me the Congress of the United States is one of the great examples of the strength of our democracy and a jewel of the Constitution. And what those people did when they violently attacked the Capitol in order to stop the Constitutionally mandated meeting of the Congress to accept the results of the Electoral College is a stain on our history and every one of those sons of ------ who did that we ought to find them, try 'em, and send them to jail.
One of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said 'I'm going to pardon those people because they're hostages.' No they're not. They are thugs. They are people -- some of them had automatic weapons in a hotel in Virginia hoping to be called up. We had people saying 'Where is Nancy Pelosi.' We had people who are taking desks, sitting at the desk of the Speaker of the House and attempting to find people in order to bring them to justice, yelling at the police saying 'kill them, kill them all.'
And so why Trump has done this is beyond me. If he had said, 'You know what. I trust our jury system, I trust our law enforcement. Anyone who assaulted the Capitol ought to be -- he said it once or twice -- but now he's got, he's appearing in a video with people who assaulted police officers with an attempt to take the Capitol by force. So, you know, look. I'm a Republican. I don't want to have a Democrat to be president. I want a Republican president. But we're facing as a country a decision --everyone has to make it -- as to what kind of leadership we're going to have. And to me it is a mistake on the part of the Trump campaign to allow the president's impulses to identify himself with people who assaulted the Capitol rather than people who stand for law and order.
Rove did not say he was going to vote for Biden and I don't expect him to do so. He's a Republican. He has Republican friends. Being a Republican is his career. Announcing a vote for Biden would destroy that career.
But I predict he will announce that he won't vote for Trump either. There is a split in the GOP from the era of Reagan-Bush-Romney into the era of Trump. Rove is left behind. Trump isn't creating a bridge. He burned it and is still doing so. Trump is negotiating a deal with fellow Republicans. Do it his way or the highway.
There is a delicate middle ground for Republican voters who want to stay in their Republican home but aren't part of the MAGA revolution, and I suspect a great many Republicans will take it. Trump demands so much from sane Republican voters—that they accept it all, the manic crazy tweets, his lawlessness, and January 6. Voters will be coached, I predict, by at least a few GOP spokespeople who say they will leave the presidential line on their ballot blank. If Trump loses in battleground states, I predict it will be the undervote that defeats him.
Trump is a Republican, yes. But he is dangerous and some segment of Republican voters see that.
Honestly: I think it's the MAGAs who are Republican in Name Only; and many of them actually eschew the name Republican, calling themselves (as in Douglas County) the America First Party, or boast that they have utterly taken over the GOP. I think that true Republicans are Liz Cheney, Karl Rove, George (Shrub) Bush, Michael Steele, et al.; and I look forward to the day their kind is ascendant. I'll oppose them on that day, but for now, bless their hearts.
Trump thinks anyone and all others are RHINOs who don't agree with him. He is a sociopath at the least and most likely a psychopath according to most of those in the medical profession. It seems to me that it is best to not respond or pronounce his foolishness on media. Just let him destroy himself on his own terms. He doesn't look well, speak well or act well these days...