'We lose elections!': GOP consultant warns Republicans against Trump 'expungement' votes
The hard right wing of the House GOP caucus is leaning on Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to vote on a measure supposedly "expunging" former President Donald Trump's two impeachments — a move that comes as the former president awaits increasingly likely indictment in the investigation of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which was the basis of Trump's second impeachment to begin with.
But Republicans will suffer at the ballot box if they go through with it, warned longtime Republican strategist Scott Jennings on CNN Thursday.
"A lot of those names that I just read are Republicans who were in districts that President Biden won, and voting on something that is basically meaningless just symbolic, or would send a message, doesn't help their campaigns," said anchor Kaitlan Collins.
"Yes, you might get into a situation where it fails," agreed Jennings. "I mean what if he puts that on the floor and you don't expunge it? I talked one House member, he's — and maybe the first one might get expunged, I'm not sure about the second one, the optics of this are all bad, and then you take on the political empirical data we have which voters are thinking about Donald Trump in the things he did and what he represents. We lose elections just like we did in the midterms, all these people want to look forward, these votes will be looking backwards going into a presidential cycle. That's not the disposition the party should take."
"Do you think a lot of this has to do with McCarthy not endorsing Trump yet in 2024?" asked Collins.
"Yeah, I mean it's about staying in the good graces," said Jennings. "His Speakership to some degree is owed to Donald Trump, they've been close political allies, I'm not surprised if the reporting is true that he floated it. But sometimes you have to protect people from their own bad ideas, and putting something on the floor that might not pass or cause extra embarrassment, Speaker McCarthy I don't think would do that, but he should be honest with the president and say, I'm not sure I can pass it."
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