Donald Trump’s campaign on Monday fired an official who organized a protest in praise of the nominee outside the Republican National Committee headquarters on Monday.
Corey Stewart, Trump’s Virginia campaign chairman, was one of the ringleaders of a protest at the RNC. Stewart had been a staunch defender of Trump following the leak of an “Access Hollywood” video featuring the GOP presidential nominee’s lewd remarks, and even used the controversy to boost his own gubernatorial campaign.
“He went ahead and went forward without our knowledge and without our approval,” radio show host John Fredericks, Trump’s Virginia co-chairman, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “We’re running a national campaign, not a gubernatorial race.”
Stewart, who is the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in Northern Virginia, was ordered by the campaign not to continue with the protest, but did so anyway, according to reports. He rallied supporters for his own race by accusing the RNC of planning to cut funding for Trump’s campaign.
“Demand the establishment and the RNC return Trump’s funding and support our nominee,” Stewart tweeted with a link to his gubernatorial website. “Sign the petition!”
The protest was a microcosm of the conundrum that faces Republicans caught between Trump’s supporters and the rest of the electorate. “There’s a lot of people that have not endorsed Trump that expect us to vote for them,” Kelley Finn, a Virginia Republican voter, told the Washington Examiner at the protest.
Finn, for instance, plans to confront Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., at a campaign event over Comstock’s call for Trump to step aside. “I’m going to say to her point blank, ‘how can you expect me to vote for you when you won’t vote for The Donald?'” Finn said.
But partisan loyalty in a general election cuts both ways, as Finn acknowledged that the same pressures that she hopes will force Comstock to back Trump against Clinton will necessitate that she vote for the first-term congresswoman.
“Really it’s an idle threat,” Finn said. “I mean, obviously I’m going to have to vote for her. But I’m going to try to bluff her into at least telling me how it is that she can’t vote for him. I don’t understand that.”
Finn said she was protesting to make a point about anger over the “Access Hollywood” video.
“Who cares?” she replied when asked what politicians should say when asked if Trump is a good role model. “I just don’t understand why its so hard to just say I support the Republican nominee. We believe in the Republican platform and the Republican principles and Donald Trump will make a good president.”
