'Trump’s quest for revenge' is already crippling GOP efforts to win back the House: columnist

In her column for the Daily Beast, longtime political observer Margaret Carlson claimed that Donald Trump's attacks on GOP lawmakers he feels are disloyal to him are already coming back to haunt the Republican Party that has high hopes of reclaiming the majority in the House in the 2022 election.

As Carlson notes, the decision of Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) to not seek reelection, in main part because of attacks by the former president that have made the Ohio Republican fear for the safety of his family, could open the gates to more Republican incumbents choosing to step aside making GOP plans to take over the House more difficult than they had planned on.

"Gonzales is a sterling example of who the Republican Party is sacrificing on the altar of The Donald. Trump's only animating force for interfering in the 2022 primaries is punishing apostates—any party member who suggests that he didn't leave the White House for the warm waters of Mar a Lago voluntarily, or upheld the results of the election he lost or, worst of all, voted for impeachment," Carlson wrote before suggesting, "This is the party of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, and the pillow guy who missed last month's deadline to move Trump back into the White House. But it's not just fringe characters joining in Trump's bonfire."

As she notes, Trump's "quest for revenge" against Republicans who don't bow and scrape before him will have a long-term effect on the Republican Party -- and they may not even see it coming.

Writing, "Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy have turned the party over to the ex- president as they watch his followers cling to him," she added, "Trump's quest for revenge is at odds with the party's desire to win back Congress which would be more likely with incumbents running for re-election than crackpots who appeal to the MAGAniacs and satisfy Trump's hunger for retribution. But Trump, perpetually tan, rested in semi-retirement, and seething with anger, continues to remake the Grand Old Party to his specs, one primary at a time, anointing sycophants and forcing officials like Gonzales out."

"Maybe normal Republicans will find their spines if Trump takes them down to defeat in 2022 and they realize they defeated themselves by giving over their party to a madman who would have no power to destroy except that which they've ceded him," she concluded.

You can read the whole piece here.