A couple of prominent Republicans have joined the growing chorus of voices from the party distancing themselves from controversial former President Donald Trump.
As Trump teases his “prominent” future in the party, Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas and current Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson both said things over the weekend indicating they are done with Trump.
On Sunday, Hurd told on NBC’s Chuck Todd that Trump’s role in the future of the Party should be “very little, if none at all.”
Todd then asked him “What role should former President Trump have in the future of the Republican Party?”
Hurd responded with his vision of the future of the GOP:
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“I think very little, if none at all. This is a president that lost the House and Senate and White House in the last four years. I think the last person to do that was Herbert Hoover. The number of Republicans that were successful significantly outperformed President Trump. We should be talking to disaffected Democrats. The fact that Speaker Pelosi didn’t pick up any seats shows the Democratic Party has some is problems. You know history tells us we’ll take back the House. How we do that — and we should do it based on our principals and talking to those folks that didn’t believe in defunding the police and open borders. We have an opportunity, but we can’t do that if we are talking about the lies of an election that went wrong or succumbing to conspiracy theories.”
Governor Hutchinson, also on Sunday, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he would not back Trump if he makes another White House run in 2024.
Asked by host Dana Bash, “The former president is teasing a run again in 2024. would you ever support him again?” Hutchinson responded with a fairly firm negative:
“No, I wouldn’t. It’s time, and he’s got a good family. I worked with Ivanka and others, and they love America. But I would not support him for reelection in 2024. He’s going to have a voice, but as former presidents do, but there is many voices in the party. Again, he should not define our future. We’ve got to define it for ourselves, and that has to be based upon the principles that gave us the strength in America.
Hutchinson Concluded:
We got to respond to the people that like Trump. We’ve got to respond and identify with the issues that gave him the first election and gave him support throughout his presidency. There is one that we have to reach out to, but it’s based upon conservative principles and reaching out to the blue-collar voters that are important and identify with him because he’s fighting for them, and we’ve got to take that message, but we just got to handle it in a different way with different personalities.”
