Former President Donald Trump is gearing up to fleece Republican Party voters on a level like never before, longtime GOP consultant Sarah Longwell told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Thursday.
This comes after the Republican National Committee revealed this week it's had its worst fundraising year in a decade — and the picture looks even worse for many state-level GOP committees.
"One of the things, Sarah — parties have gotten weaker over time," said Hayes. "I think RNC, if I'm not mistaken, $80 million last year? And Trump had $50 million in legal fees. I mean, those dollars, it is a fixed part. There's a certain amount of small-dollar Republican conservative donors, a certain amount of money that's gonna come flowing in. And right now $50 million in legal fees."
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"I guess it is, and it's about to get worse," said Longwell, who helped found Republican Voters Against Trump. "He's gonna be in court the entire time they're trying to raise money to run races. Donald Trump is not the only person in the Republican Party. They have Senate races. They have downballot races. There's a lot of other people who are hoping for that money."
"That's what's been so crazy to me about the Republican Party," Longwell continued. "In a healthy political environment, they would be upset with him about this, about draining resources for the betterment of the party. That's always been the thing about Donald Trump. He doesn't care about the Republican Party ... they are trying to help him and whatever they can for him only to the detriment of the party and any kind of principle or meaningful ideological places, the thing that they want to do, it's just all about Trump and they're not gonna have a platform, then I can be able to raise money for Senate candidates, they're just gonna go all in on Trump, and it's the whole Republican Party."
"Republicans have nobody to blame but themselves because they let this happen," she added. "They could've stood up 1 million different times in 1 million different ways. They chose not to, and that's why we're here."
Watch the video below or at the link.
Sarah Longwell discusses RNC's financial problemswww.youtube.com
