Never Trump commentator Bill Kristol is hoping to help the Biden administration pass immigration reform.
While discussing the future of the small but vocal coalition of dissident Republicans during the Trump administration, Kristol said that the “Never Trump Republicans are a small but potentially important part of the overall Biden governing coalition,” singling out immigration.
Kristol said that should President-elect Joe Biden work to pass immigration reform, he could promote provisions of the legislation popular with some Republicans and independents.
“It could be ads. It could be private meetings. It could be talking to business leaders or to … members of Congress. Never Trumpers can help the Biden administration govern successfully,” Kristol told Politico Magazine.
Before President Trump’s rise to the presidency, Kristol was regarded as a leading conservative voice, championing Bush-era neoconservatism. Kristol’s father, Irving Kristol, was dubbed the “godfather of neoconservatism,” an ideology he described as a liberal “mugged by reality.”
In 2015, Trump courted Kristol for his endorsement in the presidential election, but the relationship between the two dwindled after Trump took shots at Arizona Sen. John McCain’s war record. Since then, Kristol has become the face of the Never Trump movement.
Biden is expected to use his executive powers of the presidency to sign certain immigration amnesty orders, including reversing Trump’s travel restrictions on certain Middle Eastern countries and doubling down on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump attempted to disband the program, but he faced numerous court battles to solidify the policy ban.
This summer, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the way Trump repealed the DACA program was illegal and that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act. However, the Supreme Court did not contend that the president did not have the executive power to disband the program.
Over a dozen Never Trump Republicans, some of whom have defected from the GOP, told Politico that their goal is to push the Republican Party away from Trumpism, which they said includes an “embrace of authoritarianism.” But not everyone agrees on how to transform their old political party.
“The reality is: Is there a market for an anti-Trump Republican Party now? I would say no,” said Stuart Stevens, a member of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
Tim Miller, who left the Republican Party after being a spokesman for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said there aren’t any clear answers about the future of the Never Trump GOP.
“Can we recruit Never Trumpers to run? Can we find moderate candidates to run? Is that the best thing to do? Is the best thing to do to be more helpful to Biden? I don’t think there’s any clear answers right now,” Miller said.
