Will the real Republican Party in Michigan please stand up!
"You tell me," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow teased on Monday night. "Is there a Republican Party in swing state Michigan? Is there one? Are there two? How do you tell the difference?"
The query echoed Bridge Michigan reporter Jonathan Oosting' Twitter/X post: "It's the tale of two Michigan Republican Parties.... MIGOP.org faction: [Kristina] Karamo still chair despite 'illegitimate meeting.' Real state committee meeting Jan. 13. MI-GOP.org action: Malinda Pego now chair. Karamo ousted. Jan. 13 meeting cancelled."
"If you put a dash between the 'MI' and the 'GOP' at mi-gop.org — you find yourself at a totally different Michigan Republican party website; one where the chair is not Kristina Karamo, but rather this other person, a totally different person.
Whatever the dueling dot-orgs... undisputed is that on Saturday, a whopping 89% of Michigan Republicans voted to remove election denier and state GOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo, ending calls for her resignation by many in her party, which has been inundated by financial woes and infighting. In fact, as of December, the party was "on the brink of bankruptcy."
The meeting wasn't attended by Karamo.
Enter Maddow, who, like Oosting, was puzzled by the dueling GOPs.
"Each of these totally different websites with totally different chairs says literally, 'Paid for by the Michigan Republican party, but they appear to be two different unrelated things with two different people in charge."
The "MIGOP.org" features a ticker on top that reads: "A small fringe faction of State Committee members staged an illegitimate gathering to claim removal of Chairwoman Kristina Karamo."
It then jumps to a press release called the meeting a "rogue cabal" that "called today's bogus gathering a preemptive ploy to illegally remove the chair, and many other State Committee members."
It added: "This entire process is illegitimate according to the rules of the Michigan Republican Party bylaws and is illegal based on Michigan election laws."
It also included a video of the general counsel, facing the camera saying, "Hi, my name is Dan Hartman. I am still the general counsel for the Michigan Republican Party."
The rival site, MI-GOP.org" features a static page with a picture of Interim Chair Malinda Lego with Stars and Stripes in the background.
It discussed the process to "remove former Chairwoman Kristina Karamo and former General Counsel [Hartman]."
It ended with a turn to the future: "Now is the time to unify Republicans and grow our voter base to win elections throughout our state in 2024 and beyond."
