Sen. John Dune of South Dakota, a member of the GOP’s management team, suggested that the President’s actions and astronomy were to blame for both the Republican Senate’s spending of the Senate and the forcing their supporters to storm the Capitol on Wednesday.
“Our identity for several years is now built around an individual,” Thune told CNN. “You have to get back to where it was built around a set of ideas and principles and policies.”
But a number of Thune colleagues of GOP, some who have privately expressed their frustration with Trump for years, speak out more strongly.
Her South Carolina Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham, in Mace’s assessment Thursday, said Trump’s role in promoting the movement “breaks my heart” and that the stain on his head will be a “self-inflicted injury.”
Trump’s new level of anger reflects how this week’s events have shifted power dynamics within the GOP.
Despite defeating him, Trump has remained a political force that Republicans felt they could not ignore and certainly not to reject. The President has continued to raise millions of dollars to defend his election-winning claims, and his political allies have made threats that Trump will continue to control GOP side schools outside the office. The nearby Georgia rhythms, with control of the Senate, offered justification for suing Trump’s false claims about widespread voter confusion.
Now, however, the losses in Georgia and the brutal consequences of those claims have shocked the outgoing President about his impact among Republicans Capitol. Hill and has raised questions about the long-term damage he has done to the party’s viability.
“Trump was just announcing the state of the party to all swing voters and reassuring them that we are f – a cowardly king,” said one Republican campaign strategist.
In particular, Thune pointed out how Trump’s unwillingness to surrender was hampering GOP Sens ’runoff campaigns. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
“They were playing a very difficult hand, when you have the most effective argument you’re going to be a check-and-balance against the agenda of Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, but you can’t admit that Biden won, “he said. “It puts you in a very difficult position.”
But Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol was the final straw for many Republicans – accelerating years of pent-up harassment by Trump into an immediate sense of anger. When asked late Wednesday what he wanted to hear from Trump, Sen. Roy Blunt did not mince words.
“I don’t want to hear anything,” Blunt said. “It was a difficult day, and it was a part of it.”
Sen. Kevin Dmer of North Dakota, a strong ally of Trump, said the President is “carrying some responsibility” for the unrest at the Capitol. “He’s certainly responsible for what he did and his own words,” he said, adding that Trump was “pouring fuel on a spark” by attacking Mike Pence Wednesday.
“And then just the call for a parade down the Capitol, it was inspiring,” he said. “It was all awful.”
“I just think we hit at the bottom. You get so many people together and motivate them, you can’t control them,” Sen said. John Cornyn of Texas. “This will open up, I think, a bit of backlash, because I don’t think anyone is accepting it as a satisfactory outcome.”
So plagued by the President, Senate Republicans seem to have little energy to work on or promote Trump’s removal before Joe Biden is inaugurated. Sen. Utah’s Mitt Romney, the only Republican to vote to oust Trump after last year’s impeachment, released the GOP Senate’s desire to cycle out the last two weeks of administration.
“I think we need to hold our breath for the next 20 days,” Romney said.
CNN’s Ted Barrett, Ali Zaslav and Sarah Fortinsky contributed to this story.