THE head of the Republican National Committee said the party will not encourage Donald Trump to run for president again in 2024.
Chairman Ronna McDaniel said the party must remain “neutral,” when considering Trump in comparison to other GOP candidates that may emerge.
“The party has to stay neutral,” McDaniel told the Associated Press. “I’m not telling anybody to run or not to run in 2024.
“That’s going to be up to those candidates going forward. What I really do want to see him do, though, is help us win back majorities in 2022.”
McDaniel said that the focus of the party should be sticking together and working to gain some Congressional power back after Republicans lost the Senate, the House and the White House in the 2020 election.
She also condemned the pro-Trump conspiracy theory movement, QAnon, as “dangerous,” even though Trump himself refused to condemn the group.
“I think it’s really important after what’s just happened in our country that we have some self reflection on the violence that’s continuing to erupt in our country,” McDaniel said.
“I think QAnon is beyond fringe. I think it’s dangerous.”
McDaniel’s comments come after years of remaining loyal to Trump, and as tension in Congress is high after Trump was impeached for a second time before leaving office on January 20.
Ten House Republicans broke ranks with the party and voted to impeach Trump after his supporters stormed the Capitol building on January 6 as Congress was certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.
On Tuesday, five Senate Republicans joined in and voted to move forward with an impeachment trial that could bar Trump from ever running for public office again.
McDaniel stressed that fighting within the party is not conducive to the main goal.
“If we’re fighting each other every day and attacking each other and brandishing party purism, we’re not going to accomplish what we need to win back the House and take back the Senate, and that’s my priority,” she said.
Trump’s impeachment hearings are set to begin on February 8, even though 45 Republican Senators voted against moving forward.
The vote in favor of impeachment was 55 to 45 in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but the Constitution requires two-thirds of the 100-member Senate to convict.
Currently, it seems unlikely that Trump will be impeached once the trial concludes.