The chairwoman of the RNC responded to intra-party criticism of President Trump with a warning Monday.
From CNN:
As CNN’s piece illustrates, McDaniel’s suggestion that Senate candidates who split with Trump all failed stretches the truth. Besides Portman and McCain, Senator Lisa Murkowski called for Trump to drop out of the race and went on to win her re-election bid. Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey declined to endorse Trump and won re-election. Utah senator Mike Lee called on Trump to “step aside” in a statement on Facebook and won nearly 70 percent of the vote. Like Murkowski and Lee, South Dakota Senator John Thune encouraged Trump to “withdraw” in favor of Mike Pence before winning 72 percent of the vote in his race.
A number of senators sent mixed messages on Trump. Mike Crapo of Idaho endorsed Trump, then un-endorsed, and then re-endorsed, saying he would vote for Trump over Hillary Clinton. Crapo won 66 percent of the vote in Idaho. Marco Rubio issued what the Atlantic called a “soft” endorsement. He told The Weekly Standard before the election that while he preferred Trump over Clinton, he still considered it “dangerous” to entrust “the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual.” Rubio won re-election to the Senate after previously announcing he would not run.
Toomey, Lee, Thune, Crapo, and Rubio all won their races by larger margins than Trump did in their states.
