Peter Thiel targets 'the traitorous 10' as part of effort to remake the GOP: report

Billionaire GOP donor Peter Thiel is focused on ousting Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Thiel has referred the Republicans as "the traitorous 10," The New York Timesreported Monday.

"All of them had to be replaced, he declared, by conservatives loyal to the former president. Mr. Thiel, who became known in 2016 as one of the biggest donors to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, has re-emerged as a key financier of the Make America Great Again movement. After sitting out the 2020 presidential race, the venture capitalist this year is backing 16 Senate and House candidates, many of whom have embraced the lie that Mr. Trump won the election," the newspaper reported.

Thiel has already spent more than $20 million on the effort.

"What sets Mr. Thiel’s spending apart, though, is its focus on hard-right candidates who traffic in the conspiracy theories espoused by Mr. Trump and who cast themselves as rebels determined to overthrow the Republican establishment and even the broader American political order," the newspaper reported. "Mr. Thiel, 54, has not publicly said what he believes about the 2020 election. But in Mr. Trump, he sees a vessel to push through his ideological goals, three people close to the investor said."

The newspaper reported Steve Bannon says he sees Thiel as focused on "reshaping the Republican agenda with his brand of anti-establishment contrarianism."

“I don’t think it’s just about flipping the Senate,” Bannon said. “I think Peter wants to change the direction of the country.”

The newspaper reported Thiel has met with Trump at least three times since the 2020 election.

Longtime GOP strategist Scott Reed worries the candidates Thiel is backing in the primaries could have trouble winning in the general election.

“You have to nominate candidates who can win in the fall and not just damage everyone on the way,” he said.

Read the full report.

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