GOP is 'dooming' itself to 'minority status' by clinging to Trump: Republican operative

The Republican Party is weathering internal fights about the need to maintain total loyalty to former President Donald Trump, and at least one longtime GOP operative is warning that it could massively hurt the party in the coming years.

Michael Steel, a former top aide to House Speaker John Boehner, tells CNN's Michael Warren that he is particularly disturbed at seeing the Arizona Republican Party censure Gov. Doug Ducey because he refused to overturn his state's election results for Trump's benefit.

"If you say to the people of Arizona that your successful, conservative, two-term governor is somehow a problem, you are dooming yourself to minority status," he said.

Conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson, who has frequently been critical of Trump despite voting for him in this year's election, similarly said that his party cannot afford to become any smaller.

"A party that isn't big enough for Dick Cheney's daughter, Trump's secretary of transportation's husband, John McCain's wife, and the sitting governors of Arizona and Georgia is a party not big enough to win," he said.