Former Republican officials float possibility of forming 'center-right' party - CNNPoli... - 0 views
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A group of more than 100 former Republican officials have discussed the possibility of forming a conservative party due to their unhappiness with the direction of the GOP under former President Donald Trump and the likelihood he'll be acquitted at the end of his second impeachment trial, according to Republicans who participated in the conversation.
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"Clearly, there are a number of Republicans like myself and other Republican leaders, who want a clean break from President Trump, and we are kind of rallying around some core founding principles like truth and honesty, and democracy, and rule of law," the former Pennsylvania congressman, who is a CNN contributor, told CNN's Chris Cuomo Thursday.
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The call came nearly a month after the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol, when Trump supporters attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election, believing the false claim promoted by Trump that it was stolen from him. One week later, the US House voted to impeach Trump for "incitement of insurrection," with 10 Republicans joining with Democrats.
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Despite the visceral presentation from House impeachment managers during Trump's Senate impeachment trial this week, Republican senators have signaled that they will vote to acquit Trump, arguing Democrats have not made a strong case that Trump's words led to the violent actions in January and that the trial is unconstitutional since Trump is a former president.Dent told CNN on Thursday that Trump is likely to be acquitted and "will not be held to account," and he will then attempt to take down Senate Republicans who vote to convict him and the 10 GOP House members who voted to impeach him.
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Dent told CNN that Republicans like himself believe it's important to rally around GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Fred Upton of Michigan, and GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, "who stood up for truth, for principle and want to make a clean break and want this party to be different."
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"I think what's happened over the last three or four days has fortified a very large group of people" who believe that if Senate Republicans don't convict Trump that the "party is going to split into two pieces" so that it's "diluted and completely weakened," Scaramucci told CNN's Cuomo.
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"It will be a center-right party that will be cooperative with the Democrats and it will liquidate the nonsense on the far-right," said Scaramucci.
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"The current direction of the party is destructive, both for its own interests, but most importantly, for the interests of the country," he told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield on Sunday, adding, "So as extreme as some members of Congress are getting on the Republican side, as the party deals with those related issues, there's also an opportunity for renewal and rebirth, and that's what we spoke about."
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"What we're about is a new direction for the party, and we're trying to unite people who are committed to our foundational values, to democracy, and to who are desiring that, regardless of who they supported in the past, and the fact our numbers are growing is the most exciting thing about it," he said.