Republicans must 'stop playing stupid' to have any hope of coming back: Ex-GOP chair

On Saturday, writing for MSNBC, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele outlined the steps the GOP needs to take to stop its slide into extremism and irrelevance.

Steele has been a harsh critic of the GOP's direction in recent years, and actually endorsed Biden for president in 2020.

"My fellow Republicans must stop playing stupid," wrote Steele. "Stop acting like you don't know what Trump and his supporters in Congress and across the country did and continue to do. The insurrectionists were asked to come to Washington by Trump, encouraged to violence by Trump and supported by Trump in a seditious conspiracy that left seven Americans dead in its wake. Meanwhile, there is growing concern that some Republicans in Congress aided and abetted the insurrection. If proven, they all need to be held accountable."

One of the other things Republicans must do, wrote Steele, is seriously work with President Joe Biden, who has made clear he wants to pass his major policy initiatives with Republican votes if possible.

"Joe Biden will be a successful president — if we allow him to be," wrote Steele. "He is offering all of us an invaluable gift: unity. We need it to address the Covid-19 pandemic and economic stagnation for mainstream Americans, as well as to disinfect, cleanse and apply salve on our racial wounds. But we must address all the wounds to the body politic, not just those visibly hemorrhaging the lifeblood of our democratic republic."

You can read more here.