The internecine angle to the intra-party political and financial conflicts come via Politico, so apply that prism accordingly. However, the overarching background of the story (as presented) does align with the internal party power conflict we all know about.
According to the outline, Mitch McConnell has withdrawn spending of the Senate PAC funds from MAGA senate candidates. McConnell is telling his senators who are more favorably aligned with President Trump, to push the Trump PAC to spend more on them if Trump wants to see them win in 2022.
President Trump has, and continues to, support all of the MAGA candidates with direct funding [See FEC Filing], campaign rallies [LINK], and major big donor fundraisers [LINK], including at least one example of excessive funds distributed [LINK]. However, whenever anything involves McConnell, particularly when it involves money, it is critical to apply a Machiavellian prism to McConnell’s DeceptiCon motives.
By now everyone should know Senator McConnell holds no fundamental interest in being in the majority. Nothing in his power structure changes if Democrats are in the majority. From McConnell and the club approach, the “control of the senate” argument is a fundraising gimmick. Give the DeceptiCons control of the senate and nothing structurally changes in the policy or legislative sphere. Reference the 2014 to 2020 GOPe control, anti-Trump resistance, budgets and support for Obamacare, as examples of the last time the GOPe had senate majorities.
Absent of any real motivation to gain a republican majority in the senate, illusions and pretenses dropped, the “battle for control of the senate” simply comes down to a strategy of what is best to support Big Corps, and downstream fundraising. However, the fundraising angle does afford Mitch the opportunity to leverage more power and eliminate influence.
By withdrawing financial support and telling MAGA candidates to go get money from Trump, McConnell positions his power in the senate to bleed his opposition of resources, in this example, Donald Trump.
Mitch creates a club narrative that Donald Trump is not supporting the MAGA candidates who gained victories in the primary. He also seeks to bleed Donald Trump of money so that a more ‘acceptable republican’ can challenge him financially later on.
President Trump has around $100 million in his Super PAC. Meanwhile Ron DeSantis has around $200 million in his PAC, and the Republican party of Florida (a completely separate club entity) is doing all the campaign spending so that DeSantis keeps his coffers full for the looming 2024 presidential race.
Team DeSantis isn’t spending much on his Florida governor’s race, other than small campaign expenses, because he doesn’t need to. All those commercials, advertising, marketing and solicitation you see are from alternative groups (like the republican party of Florida), not the DeSantis campaign itself.
With around $200 million in the bank, minimal spending rate and 60 days before the election, why would a state candidate be traveling around the country to collect donations? The simple answer is the collection is not for the current state race. DeSantis is building a 2024 war chest.
Insert McConnell and now you can easily make the argument the corporate club ownership is attempting to bleed one candidate (Trump) in order to quietly build another acceptable replacement (DeSantis). The internal club games on display.
(Politico) – Mitch McConnell is indirectly nudging Donald Trump to help Republicans try to flip the Senate, part of a broader GOP campaign to get the former president to open up his well-stocked coffers for the rest of the party.
[…] The effort to get Trump to unlock his PAC stash is yet another sign of his seismic effect on the Republican Party. He is sucking up a massive portion of GOP donations (including a sizable chunk of the grassroots dollars) in a midterm election year. That, in turn, has given him significant sway while out of office — even after many Senate Republicans, including McConnell, soured on Trump after the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Now they insert the false premise:
[…] The private push to get Trump to financially engage in a number of battleground states comes as the former president sits on roughly $99 million, stored in his PAC. That unused cash is drawing increased attention from GOP leaders as the midterms approach, with Trump’s own endorsed candidates lagging in polls and trailing their Democratic opponents in fundraising.
As previously noted, President Trump continues to support, finance, campaign and fundraise for all the MAGA candidates. However, the Decepticon strategy involves creating a fallacy to assist the agenda.
[…] One Republican senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the situation, doubted that Trump would loosen his purse strings even for his own candidates given the long-running tensions between him and Senate Republicans — a sentiment echoed in part by some operatives close to the former president.
“It’s not Trump’s job to elect a Senate majority,” said one Trump world adviser.
But others were more hopeful.
“In at least a couple of those races, there’s a really compelling argument for him to be involved. He’s got a huge wad of cash that could make a difference,” said Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) (read more)
The only thing more frustrating than watching republican DC politics, is watching republican DC politics unfold while the majority of voting republicans do not accept what is taking place. Republican voters are in an abusive relationship with the Republican Club, yet so many just cannot accept it.
Once you realize the goals of the people who control the Republican Club are the exact opposite goals of the voters who continue voting to keep them in office, only then can the battered conservative dynamic be broken. Unfortunately, that level of realization is painful because we start to realize the scale and scope of what the abuser would do in their effort to keep us under their control.
