President Trump’s son Eric declared that he would work to remove from office House and Senate Republicans who fail to join his father’s bid to challenge the election, fanning the flames of a fight that the president said he is determined to wage.
Eric Trump’s threat suggests a post-Trump landscape defined by intraparty strife, pitting the president and his base of supporters against lawmakers in their own party.
“I will personally work to defeat every single Republican Senator / Congressman who doesn’t stand up against this fraud — they will be primaried in their next election and they will lose,” he said in a tweet.
The threat to lawmakers draws power from the president’s fervent base.
Trump’s political operation has spearheaded a massive fundraising drive since the November election, with an influx of donations headed straight to the president’s new leadership PAC, established on Nov. 9.
A text sent by the Trump team Wednesday morning urged supporters to “stand” with lawmakers supporting the president’s last-ditch bid, dialing up the heat even as Democrats were on the verge of winning back the Senate.
“Pres Trump: Over 100 Members of Congress plan to object to the Election results TODAY. Will you stand with them?” the message reads before a prompt to “Donate NOW.”
Three-quarters of every donation goes to Trump’s Save America PAC, according to the fine print on the donation page.
The formula states: “75% of each contribution first to Save America, up to $5,000/$5,000, then to DJTP’s Recount Account, up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000. Twenty-five percent of each contribution to the RNC’s Operating account, up to a maximum of $35,500/$15,000. Any additional funds will go to the RNC for deposit in the RNC’s Legal Proceedings account or Headquarters account, up to a maximum of $213,000/$90,000.”
Trump’s leadership PAC is constrained from spending money on campaign debt or post-election legal bills but can spend these funds on a post-White House political effort.
Perhaps critically for Republican lawmakers, the group can leverage the president’s fundraising prowess into supporting challengers in their coming elections.
Speaking at a “Save America March” in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Eric Trump urged members to stand with his father, suggesting they would struggle to escape the president’s influence.
“This movement will never, ever die,” he told the crowd.
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, echoed the sentiment, charging that Republicans “did nothing to stop the steal.”
“This gathering should send a message to them; this isn’t their Republican Party anymore, this is Donald Trump’s Republican Party, this is the Republican Party that will put America first,” he said. “These guys better fight for Trump. Because if they’re not, guess what? I’m going to be in your backyard in a couple of months!”
Trump Jr. also billed the vote as an opportunity for lawmakers voting to certify the Electoral College, telling his father’s supporters that Republicans could either be “hero” or a “zero.”
“The choice is yours, but we are all watching,” he said.
Speaking shortly before senators were set to vote to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory, Trump railed against the electoral vote certification, telling the crowd that “we’re going to walk down” to the Capitol in protest.
Trump said that Republicans must “fight” and told supporters to “primary the hell out of the ones who won’t.”
He called out “the Liz Cheneys of the world,” referring to the Republican senator from Wyoming with whom he has often sparred. Her father, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, helped to orchestrate a public letter of fellow ex-defense secretaries urging current Defense Department officials to stay away from Trump’s election challenges.
The president also heaped pressure on his vice president, who, as president of the Senate, will preside over the vote, and with his political future in the balance, has sought to deftly navigate the balance between his constitutional duty and Trump’s demands.
“Mike Pence has got to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day,” Trump said. Protesters later stormed the Capitol, and Pence was ushered out of the chambers by the Secret Service.
