Milwaukee:

Five days after narrowly escaping assassination, Donald Trump will accept his presidential nomination on Thursday before an adoring crowd of supporters, the final act in his transformation of the Republican Party into the party of Trump.

His brush with death has fueled the growing quasi-religious fervor among the party faithful, elevating him from political leader to a man they believe is protected by God.

“Trump, Trump, Trump,” attendees roared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee when he appeared each night this week, his right ear bandaged, to listen to speaker after speaker intone reverentially about him and reference God’s hand in his survival from a would-be assassin’s bullet.

Republicans are uniting behind him this week. With most dissent quelled and his grip on the party never tighter, Trump will be in a much stronger position than in his 2017-2021 term to follow through on his agenda if he wins the Nov. 5 election.

Untrammeled by the internal divisions that sometimes stymied him in his first term, Trump would be freer to pursue hard-edged policies that include mass deportations as part of a crackdown on illegal migration, aggressive trade policies, and dismissing government officials seen as insufficiently loyal.

Even if Trump retakes the White House, Republicans take control of both houses of Congress, and conservatives go on holding a Supreme Court super majority, there would still be institutional checks on a second Trump term.

 

He could be kept in check by Congress, the courts, and a public that elects a new Congress every two years and a president every four years, constitutional experts say.

Nevertheless, many Trump supporters want to see a powerful president.

“You need a strong leader at the top,” said Bill Dowd, a 79-year-old lumber business owner who was a guest of the Colorado delegation in Milwaukee.

“I’m a very, very big Ronald Reagan fan. Ronald Reagan pulled the party together also,” Dowd said.

Dowd acknowledged that some of his Republican friends feared that Trump might try to abuse his power. He said while he did not share that fear he believed that dissent should not be stifled in any party.

For Trump’s critics and political opponents, this is a dark and disturbing moment: they see the modern Republican Party as a cult of personality, a base from which Trump could pursue extreme policies and create America’s first truly imperial presidency, threatening the future of its democratic norms.

“Donald Trump has called for the ‘termination’ of the Constitution, promised to be a ‘dictator’ ‘on day one,’ and now his Supreme Court justices say he can rule without any checks on his power,” said Ammar Moussa, campaign spokesman for incumbent President Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic rival.

“Trump is a liar, but we believe him when he says he will rule as a dictator,” Moussa said.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Democratic assertions that Trump threatens American democracy and could become an autocrat if reelected were “fear-mongering” and a “blatant effort to deceive the American people.”

An Unrestricted Trump

In Milwaukee, nearly all of the 30 delegates, guests, and elected Republicans interviewed by Reuters for this story acknowledged that their party had become the party of Trump but dismissed any suggestion that it had become cult-like.

“I believe that President Trump is a transformational figure, a man of destiny who God providentially saved from death on Saturday,” Louisiana delegate Ed Tarpley said. “He’s been given a special mission in our country. God’s providential hand has elevated Donald Trump to a different status.”

Those interviewed said they wanted a President Trump who was not constrained by bureaucracy or Congress to execute his agenda. They were in favor of a more expansive use of executive action – decisions made by a president that do not need congressional approval.

They want nothing to stand in the way of his plans to deport millions of people in the country illegally and to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy. In his first term Trump often complained of “deep state” bureaucrats he said were seeking to thwart him.

“The president… must be allowed to implement his policies free of a bureaucracy resistant to them and unelected officials who do not agree with them,” Tarpley said.

There are constitutional limits to what Trump can do through the power of his office, however, and any policies could still face lawsuits.

“I think the fears of critics are overblown, in the sense that they’re more worried about the substance of his likely policies than the possibility that they’ll be adopted through unilateral executive action,” Stewart Baker, a former general counsel for the U.S. National Security Agency, said.

If Trump goes too far, his opponents say, they may still be able to count on federal courts to check him.

“We are mindful of the fact that we have a very conservative Supreme Court. But what we have found is that even Trump-appointed judges have ruled against his policies and found them illegal,” said Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center.

Half of Republican respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week said they agreed with the statement that “the country is in a crisis and needs a strong president who should be allowed to rule without too much interference from the courts and Congress.”

That was substantially higher than the 35% of Democrats and 33% of independents who agreed with the sentiment.

Only one convention attendee interviewed by Reuters, a senior Republican from a southern state, said he was worried about a second Trump administration. He said he feared Trump would become an autocrat, fill government agencies with yes men, and seek revenge on his political enemies.

Referring to Trump’s pledge to supporters that he will be their “retribution,” the Republican, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “That effort will be horrendous.”

Trump was widely criticized for saying during the campaign that should he win, he will be a “dictator” – if only for a day, a comment he later said was a joke.

Democrats have rebuked him for promising to pardon his supporters imprisoned for the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that was triggered by his refusal to accept his 2020 election loss.

Trump, who was convicted of making hush money payments to a former porn star and faces charges related to his efforts to overturn Biden’s victory, has threatened to use the Justice Department to pursue opponents, including Biden. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Former Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson said he was concerned about the lack of constraints on Trump in a second term.

“The Department of Justice is probably the perfect example of that. Clearly, a President Trump would have a close hand at directing the activities of the Justice Department,” Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, told Reuters.

Making ‘Nixon Blush’

The implications of a second Trump term are profoundly disturbing for America and the world, said presidential historian Timothy Naftali, a former director at the presidential library of Richard Nixon, who resigned from office in disgrace in 1974 after the Watergate scandal.

Naftali said a recent Supreme Court decision granting sweeping immunity to a president for most acts while in office, combined with a pliant Republican Party, means there are limited constraints on Trump should he act maliciously and exploit the office for his own personal power and political retribution.

“He can gut the Justice Department and engage in a revenge tour that would make Nixon blush,” Naftali said.

To be sure, Trump would not be the first president to test the limits of executive power. Leaders including former Democratic presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama have taken an expansive view of their authority.

Even with the July 1 ruling by the high court on presidential immunity, Trump ostensibly would still be bound by the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers that reserves key functions to Congress and the judiciary.

Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chair, and Trump’s daughter-in-law acknowledged this week that governance by executive action – which can be overturned in the courts or by a successor – was not ideal. That’s why it was crucial for Republicans to hold onto the House of Representatives in November and take the Senate from Democrats, she said, “so we don’t have to rely on executive actions and we can actually see some lasting change.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Watch: What is the Republican National Convention?

| Video Credit:
PTI

As United States of America prepares for its presidential election later this year, the 4-day Republican National Convention began at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee Wisconsin on July 15.

The convention is an event in which delegates of the United States Republican Party will select the party’s nominees for President and Vice-President in the country’s presidential election.

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, is now one of Trump’s fiercest allies and defenders and among those short-listed to be Trump’s vice presidential pick.
| Photo Credit: AP

J.D. Vance appeared on the scene of American public life with his 2016 best-seller memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. President Barack Obama cited it while explaining the cultural and economic reasons that made the disruptive politics championed by Donald Trump appealing to the white working class. Mr. Vance, then 32, was a strong critic of Mr. Trump, who he said was unfit to be the President of the U.S. Two weeks shy of 40, Mr. Vance — now a U.S. Senator from Ohio — will be among the star speakers at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and could even become the running mate of Mr. Trump. Whether Mr. Trump chooses him or not, Mr. Vance has emerged as a frontrunner to inherit the former’s America First politics.

Mr. Vance’s book portrayed the crisis of the white working class from his personal vantage point, and in the years that followed, he presented himself as someone who overcame that crisis through faith and hard work. He was once an atheist but gradually moved towards faith and in 2019, he baptised and became a Catholic. He told an interviewer that he “spent a lot of his life buying into the lie that you had to be stupid to be a Christian.”

Also read | Trump rally shooting: Focus to shift on shooter and security lapses

Defining politics

Speaking at a conservative conference in Detroit, Michigan, on June 16, he called for defining politics in terms of what it stands for, not merely what it stands against. “We stand for an American nation built by American people, American workers,” he said. “We have to see the problem and find the solution. Make more of the stuff that we need in our own country. That is the solution. Twenty million people who have no business to be here, are here, because of Joe Biden. The solution is to deport each one of them.”

“America is not an idea as Democrats say. Seven generations of my family, from the Civil War to the 21st century are connected to this land. We are not just an idea, this is our home. That is the single principle at stake in this election.”

In an interview with Steve Bannon, a fellow traveller, during his Senate campaign in 2022, he said: ‘I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.’

As a strong votary of America First politics Mr. Vance is preferred by the nationalist base of the Republican Party. In a straw poll at the Turning Point convention in Detroit, 43% preferred him as Vice President on Mr. Trump’s ticket, which was three times the support for the next popular candidate.

From being a strong critic of Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance transformed himself into an ardent supporter and moved to the centre stage of U.S. politics as a highly visible and articulate lawmaker. “When Donald Trump was President, there was peace around the world. Now, there is a conflict in every corner of the world,” he told the Detroit gathering. Young, sharp and articulate, Mr. Vance presents himself as someone who is more structured, coherent and methodical than his leader.

Mr. Vance is married to Usha Chilukuri, his former Yale Law School classmate. “Like Mr. Obama, he is also a writer and a story teller,” a Democrat who served in the Obama administration said. “He’s a leader to watch.”

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) speaks during a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump, at Trump’s golf resort in Doral, Florida, U.S., on July 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday revelled in the mounting turmoil surrounding President Joe Biden ’s campaign in the wake of their debate and teased the expected announcement of his Republican running mate with one of the top contenders, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in attendance.

After days spent lying low, golfing and letting Democratic infighting play out in public, Mr. Trump used his return to the campaign trail in Florida to ratchet up his attacks on both Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr. Trump rallied his supporters at one of his Miami-area golf courses as the presumptive Republican nominee nears a deadline to announce his running mate. But he appears in no rush, as much of the political world’s attention is still centred on questions about Mr. Biden’s ability to govern for another four-year term.

Rubio to be running mate?

Mr. Trump repeatedly played into the speculation that he might elevate Mr. Rubio to his ticket.

Mr. Rubio, a Miami native and one of the contenders for the vice presidential post, was among the Florida politicians who spoke at the event.

At one point, Mr. Trump marveled at the number of reporters in attendance and said, “I think they probably think I’m going to be announcing that Marco is going to be vice president.”

Later, when he talked about his pledge to make tips tax-free, he remarked that Mr. Rubio “may or may not be there to vote for it.”

Hispanic American vote

Mr. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, is seen as a potential running mate who could help Mr. Trump as he tries to secure support from Hispanic Americans, a point the senator emphasised in his remarks as he switched several times in his remarks to Spanish.

The senator did not openly acknowledge any of the speculation about him joining Mr. Trump as a running mate. He instead skewered not only Mr. Biden, whom he called “the figurehead of a left-wing government, shadow government,” but Ms. Harris, whom he would need to debate head-on if he’s chosen for Mr. Trump’s ticket.

He notably seemed to insert himself into Mr. Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” slogan by saying: “Together, we’re not just going to make it great again. We elect this man as president, we will make together America greater than it has ever been.”

Barron Trump makes first appearance at a rally

Mr. Trump’s youngest child who recently turned 18, Barron, also made his first-ever appearance at one of his father’s rallies. Mr. Trump implored his son to stand, with the young man pumping his fist a few times as Mr. Trump said, “Welcome to the scene, Barron.”

Now that Nikki Haley has ended her U.S. presidential campaign, one person who voted for her refuses to back former President Donald Trump and plans to reluctantly vote for President Joe Biden. Another Haley primary supporter acknowledges that he was probably always a “closet Trump fan” and will vote for the former president again in November.

The former U.N. ambassador’s base was never big enough to seriously challenge Mr. Trump before he clinched a third straight Republican nomination. But in what’s shaping up to be a tight rematch between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, the apparent splintering of Ms. Haley’s voters and donors could hurt Mr. Trump’s general election chances, particularly in battleground states full of suburban voters who remain dubious of a Mr. Trump return to the White House.

ALSO READ | Donald Trump’s $454 million civil fraud judgment fine slashed to $175M by New York appeals court

For now, interviews with Ms. Haley’s supporters suggest they could go in a variety of directions — some backing Mr. Trump, some going to Mr. Biden and others seeking third-party options or avoiding making a decision about the presidential race yet.

Ms. Haley has not spoken publicly since leaving the race and urging Mr. Trump to reach out to all Republicans. She has not endorsed Mr. Trump and suggested she may not at all.

“She said it’s up to him to earn the support of those who supported her, and he’s got to earn it,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a longtime GOP donor who was Ms. Haley’s Georgia campaign’s co-chairman. “Right now, I’m definitely not there. It tells me there are things that are still up in the air among other key Haley donors waiting for a sign.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Glenn Swanson caucused for Mr. Haley after seeing her campaign in his hometown of Cedar Falls, Iowa. At the time, the retired architect said he was open to a Trump alternative. Now, he’s coming back to the candidate he supported in both 2016 and 2020, despite his concerns about the four felony indictments and other civil cases facing Mr. Trump.

“For sure I’m going to vote for Mr. Trump,” Mr. Swanson said in an interview. “In a sense I was kind of a closet Mr. Trump fan all along, but I really wanted to see if somebody else would emerge to get away from some of the drama.”

John Wynstra, a database administrator who attended that same event, had been deciding between Mr. Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis before choosing to caucus for her. Mr. Wynstra said he’s strategically supporting Mr. Trump and the party’s platform — as a stance primarily against Biden — although he seemingly left the door open to possibly supporting a third-party candidate like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“I will vote against Joe Biden and the Democrats,” Mr. Wynstra said this week. “If Kennedy were viable and if his positions were palatable, I would consider him.”

In Ms. Haley’s home state of South Carolina, high school teacher Michael Burgess said that save an unlikely independent run by Haley or a moderate like former Rep. Liz Cheney, he would be supporting Biden and criticised Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

“I will reluctantly vote Biden,” Mr. Burgess said. “We can survive bad policy, but we cannot survive the destruction of the Constitution at the hands of a morally bankrupt dictator lover in Trump who, supported by his congressional MAGA minions, would do just that.”

Like many who were drawn to Ms. Haley, Mr. Tanenblatt, who was her Georgia campaign’s co-chairman, became disenchanted with Mr. Trump for what he called “inflammatory rhetoric,” chiefly in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the Capitol.

But he also says Mr. Trump’s opposition to military aid to Ukraine is a fundamental policy difference. Mr. Tanenblatt has talked individually with former Haley supporters weighing a role with No Labels, the third-party group that is moving forward with attempting a unity ticket of opposing party presidential and vice-presidential nominees.

By and large, Ms. Haley’s donors have paused, with key bundlers noting they have not heard from Mr. Trump’s team as well as their reluctance to make any decisions.

“I really think there’s a period of recalibrating for a number of us who were very involved in Nikki’s campaign. This was a calling, something bigger than any one of us,” said Simone Levinson, a Florida-based Haley fundraiser who hosted events for her in New York and Florida.

Those donors could be helpful to Mr. Trump were they to come to the former president’s side.

For now, Mr. Trump and national Republicans are lagging far behind Mr. Biden and national Democrats in fundraising, with Trump’s campaign and allied groups holding $37 million cash on hand at the end of February compared to the $155 million in Democratic coffers.

In one sign of her influence going forward, Ms. Haley ended last month with $11.5 million, just days before she suspended her campaign. That’s slightly more than the Republican National Committee at $11.3 million.

A threat of duelling party conventions to choose a presidential nominee this weekend. Accusations of adultery, corruption and incompetence. A barrage of social media attacks and a police investigation.

The Michigan Republican Party is in turmoil, raising fears among some Republicans that support for former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid could suffer in a battleground state that Democratic President Joe Biden won by 2.8 percentage points in 2020.

The fight to oust Kristina Karamo, elected as Republican party chair in Michigan last year, has become increasingly bitter and personal, leaving deep divisions in the local party, according to three dozen party members who spoke to Reuters.

At the centre of that battle is Bree Moeggenberg. The 44-year-old member of the Republican state committee — a governing board for the party in Michigan — helped organise a January 6 vote by some committee members to remove Ms. Karamo.

Ms. Moeggenberg and others blame Ms. Karamo — a fiery grassroots activist who backs Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud — for stifling dissent within the party, a lack of transparency in decision-making, and driving away wealthy donors.

The Republican National Committee — which helps to coordinate the party’s fundraising and election strategy across America — ruled in February that Ms. Karamo’s removal was legitimate and recognised Pete Hoekstra, ambassador to the Netherlands during Mr. Trump’s presidency, as the new chair. Mr. Trump has thrown his support behind Mr. Hoekstra.

Ms. Karamo has contested the vote and the rival factions have announced duelling conventions on Saturday to choose a presidential nominee and award delegates to the party’s national convention in July.

Ms. Karamo retains a loyal following among a contingent of the party’s roughly 2,000 precinct delegates and its 107-person state committee, but a court ruling this week affirming her removal as chair has put her convention and future with the party in doubt.

Among Republican activists, the fighting has become personal. Several Karamo supporters and anonymous online trolls have, without evidence, accused Ms. Moeggenberg of having an affair with a married man, Andy Sebolt, another state committee member.

Both Ms. Moeggenberg and Mr. Sebolt deny the allegations. Ms. Moeggenberg has accused Ms. Karamo and her supporters of character assassination. “Such destructive behaviour has been a core cause of division in the party,” she told Reuters.

Ms. Karamo’s signature was on an official email newsletter in January that directed party members to a Telegram messaging chatroom with a series of anonymous posts repeating the adultery allegations, some uploaded days before the crucial party vote.

Ms. Karamo did not respond to a request for comment on the adultery allegations and intra-party strife.

A number of the three dozen party members in Michigan who spoke to Reuters expressed concern that the acrimony risked leaving Republican activists disillusioned and less likely to volunteer or vote. Among the disenchanted are many grass-roots donors Ms. Karamo courted with promises of breaking the party’s reliance on the moneyed elite.

Daniel Harrington, 62, who wrote two $1,776 checks last year in support of Ms. Karamo, says he won’t be donating to the party or helping it get out the vote in November if she is ousted. As precinct delegate, he was planning to participate in Ms. Karamo’s convention in Detroit.

“We’re upset with Trump, absolutely,” said Mr. Harrington, who voted for the former president in 2016 and 2020 but was angry at how he abandoned Ms. Karamo. “I’d like to send a message wherever the convention is going to be to not elect Trump.”

A conservative, Mr. Harrington said he would probably still vote for Mr. Trump in November, if given the choice of him and Democratic President Joe Biden. Mr. Trump won Michigan’s primary convincingly on Tuesday, securing 12 of 16 delegates up for grabs. The remaining 39 of Michigan’s 55 delegates are due to be allocated on Saturday.

The impact of the turmoil within the party has already hit campaign coffers. Donations into a state-level account came to just under $20,000 from the start of Ms. Karamo’s tenure to the end of 2023, down sharply from $690,000 during the same period four years earlier, according to a Reuters review of filings.

Contributions to the state party’s federal account also suffered, with reported fundraising totaling about $900,000 last year, down from about $1.5 million four years earlier in 2019.

Personal divisions

The tensions in Michigan are driven as much by personal animus as any ideology. Ms. Karamo and her supporters describe “establishment” Republicans — those aligned with business interests and traditional donors — as corrupt, and tend to be very conservative in their policy beliefs. The members backing Mr. Hoekstra are also conservative but told Reuters they are willing to work with wealthy donors. They accuse Ms. Karamo of incompetence.

“We’re so very fractured,” said Kelly Sackett, one of two people from the rival factions claiming to be the party chair in Kalamazoo County, where a battle for control has been playing out in courtrooms and police reports. “I don’t see it all coming back together.”

A judge in Kent County, Michigan on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction saying that Ms. Karamo was properly removed and preventing her from representing herself as chair of the party in Michigan. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals denied Ms. Karamo’s request to suspend Tuesday’s ruling while it weighs her ongoing appeal.

Despite the rulings, Ms. Karamo has yet to call off Saturday’s planned convention in Detroit. Mr. Hoekstra has convened a meeting the same day in Grand Rapids, confident his delegates will be recognised at the national convention in July.

No stranger to controversy

Ms. Moeggenberg, a single mother of three who runs a daycare at her home, is no stranger to controversy. She was until recently chair of the Isabella County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative nonprofit that fought COVID-era mask mandates and teaching about LGBT rights.

When Mr. Sebolt’s wife Jennifer first messaged her privately on Facebook last June accusing her of sleeping with her husband, a tense exchange ensued.

Ms. Jennifer told Reuters she was also upset with her husband for working with Ms. Moeggenberg and others to undermine Ms. Karamo, who she supports. Ms. Jennifer did not provide evidence of an affair.

In July, as Ms. Moeggenberg ramped up pressure on Ms. Karamo, Charles Ritchard, a backer of the embattled chair, started attacking Ms. Moeggenberg and Mr. Sebolt with Facebook posts containing sexual innuendo and unsubstantiated claims of corruption.

Mr. Ritchard told Reuters he targeted Ms. Moeggenberg because she was pressuring others in her district to move against Ms. Karamo.

Following an adultery complaint submitted by Mr. Sebolt’s wife, the state police opened an investigation that prosecutors in both Oceana and Isabella counties declined to pursue, citing a lack of evidence and jurisdictional issues, according to a letter from the Oceana prosecutor on October 9 and police report dated October 10, reviewed by Reuters.

In November, Ms. Jennifer nonetheless went public with adultery allegations against her husband, posting them on Facebook. Other Karamo supporters piled in.

Mr. Hoekstra said he was confident the party would come together to back Mr. Trump and work towards winning a U.S. Senate seat up for grabs in November after the Democratic incumbent announced she would not run. Mr. Hoekstra told Reuters he has spoken with several big donors ready to write checks for the party, once leadership has changed. He did not identify the donors.

Penny Swan, a precinct delegate from the city of Hillsdale, is less sanguine about the party’s prospects.

“Our party is too involved in this turmoil and the fight within the party to do what we’re supposed to be doing: helping candidates and fundraising,” said Penny Swan, a precinct delegate from the city of Hillsdale. “I am absolutely worried.”

Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history who maintained his power in the face of dramatic convulsions in the Republican Party for almost two decades, will step down from that position in November. He represents Kentucky in the Senate.

Mr. McConnell, who turned 82 last week, was set to announce his decision on February 28 in the well of the Senate, a place where he looked in awe from its back benches in 1985 when he arrived and where he grew increasingly comfortable in the front row seat afforded the party leaders.

Also read: Mitch McConnell | Trump’s ‘political hack’

“One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter,” he said in prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. “So I stand before you today … to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.”

His decision punctuates a powerful ideological transition underway in the Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan’s brand of traditional conservatism and strong international alliances, to the fiery, often isolationist populism of former President Donald Trump.

Mr. McConnell, said he plans to serve out his Senate term, which ends in January 2027, “albeit from a different seat in the chamber.” His aides said that the announcement about the leadership post was unrelated to his health. The Kentucky senator had a concussion from a fall last year and two public episodes where his face briefly froze while he was speaking.

“As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,” he said in his prepared remarks. “A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.”

The Senator had been under increasing pressure from the restive, and at times hostile wing of his party that has aligned firmly with Mr. Trump. The two have been estranged since December 2020, when Mr. McConnell refused to abide Mr. Trump’s claim that the election of Democrat Joe Biden as president was the product of fraud.

But while Mr. McConnell’s critics within the GOP conference had grown louder, their numbers had not grown appreciably larger, a marker of McConnell’s strategic and tactical skill and his ability to understand the needs of his fellow Republican Senators.

Mr. McConnell gave no specific reason for the timing of his decision, which he has been contemplating for months, but he cited the recent death of his wife’s youngest sister as a moment that prompted introspection. “The end of my contributions are closer than I’d prefer,” he said.

Reagan’s influence

But his remarks were also light at times as he talked about the arc of his Senate career. He noted that when he arrived in the Senate, “I was just happy if anybody remembered my name.” During his campaign in 1984, when Mr. Reagan was visiting Kentucky, the president called him “Mitch O’Donnell.”

Mr. McConnell endorsed Mr. Reagan’s view of America’s role in the world and the Senator has persisted in the face of opposition, including from Mr. Trump, that Congress should include a foreign assistance package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine.

“I am unconflicted about the good within our country and the irreplaceable role we play as the leader of the free world,” Mr. McConnell said.

Against long odds he managed to secure 22 Republican votes for the package now being considered by the House.

“Believe me, I know the politics within my party at this particular moment in time. I have many faults. Misunderstanding politics is not one of them,” he said. “That said, I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed. For as long as I am drawing breath on this earth I will defend American exceptionalism.”

Strained relation with Trump

Mr. Trump has pulled the party hard to the ideological right, questioning longtime military alliances such as NATO, international trade agreements and pushing for a severe crackdown on immigration, all the while clinging to the falsehood that the election was stolen from him in 2020.

They worked together in Mr. Trump’s first term, remaking the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary in a far more conservative image, and on tax legislation. But there was also friction from the start, with Mr. Trump frequently sniping at the Senator.

Their relationship has essentially been over since Mr. Trump refused to accept the results of the Electoral College. But the rupture deepened dramatically after the riots on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. McConnell assigned blame and responsibility to Mr. Trump and said that he should be held to account through the criminal justice system for his actions.

Also read: Donald Trump ‘lit that fire’ of Capitol insurrection: January 6 report

Mr. McConnell’s critics insist he could have done more, including voting to convict Mr. Trump during his second impeachment trial. Mr. McConnell did not, arguing that since Mr. Trump was no longer in office, he could not be subject to impeachment.

Rather than fade from prominence after the Capitol riot, Mr. Trump continued to assert his control over the party, and finds himself on a clear glide path to the Republican nomination. Other members of the Republican Senate leadership have endorsed Trump. McConnell has not, and that has drawn criticism from other Republican senators.

How McConnell set up his power base

McConnell’s path to power was hardly linear, but from the day he walked onto the Senate floor in 1985 and took his seat as the most junior Republican Senator, he set his sights on being the party leader. What set him apart was that so many other Senate leaders wanted to run for president. Mr. McConnell wanted to run the Senate. He lost races for lower party positions before steadily ascending, and finally became party leader in 2006 and has won nine straight elections. He most recently beat back a challenge led by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida last November.

Mr. McConnell built his power base through a combination of care and nurturing of his members, including understanding their political imperatives. After seeing the potential peril of a rising Tea Party, he also established a super political action committee, The Senate Leadership Fund, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Republican candidates.

Despite the concerns about his health, colleagues have said in recent months that they believe he has recovered. Mr. McConnell was not impaired cognitively but did have some additional physical limitations. “I love the Senate,” he said in his prepared remarks. “It has been my life. There may be more distinguished members of this body throughout our history, but I doubt there are any with more admiration for it.”

But, he added, “Father Time remains undefeated. I am no longer the young man sitting in the back, hoping colleagues would remember my name. It is time for the next generation of leadership.”

There would be a time to reminisce, he said, but not today. “I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed.”

U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, talks to reporters as he announces he is ending his campaign to be the next House speaker after a Republican meeting at the Capitol in Washington, on October 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Representative Steve Scalise, who Republicans nominated to be the next speaker of the House of Representatives, dropped out of the race on Thursday as the party failed to resolve its divisions, prolonging the leadership crisis in the chamber.

Mr. Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, had secured his party’s nomination to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy but was still short of the 217 votes needed to be elected on the House floor, as several of his fellow Republicans said they would not support him.

EDITORIAL | Fractured collective: On Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as U.S. House Speaker

Republicans could afford no more than four defections as they control the House by a narrow 221-212 margin if they wanted to end the House’s leaderless bout that has already lasted nine days.

“I just shared with my colleagues that I was withdrawing my name as a candidate for our speaker designee,” Mr. Scalise told reporters.

“If you look at over the last few weeks, if you look at where our conference is, there is still work to be done… There are still some people that have their own agendas.”

The Republican infighting has left the chamber unable to act to support Israel’s war against Palestinian militants of Hamas and pass government spending bills before funding runs out on November 17.

Republicans had been hoping to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing spectacle that occurred in January, when hardline conservatives forced Mr. McCarthy to endure 15 floor votes over four days before winning the gavel.

‘At a standstill’

Several Republicans earlier said they would stick with Scalise’s rival Jim Jordan, who lost out in a secret-ballot vote on Wednesday. Mr. Jordan has encouraged his supporters to vote for Mr. Scalise, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

While Mr. McCarthy was the first speaker to be removed in a formal vote, the last two Republicans to hold the job wound up leaving under pressure from party hardliners.

Mr. Scalise, 58, gained near legendary status within Republican circles by surviving a severe gunshot wound after a gunman opened fire during practice for a charity baseball game in 2017.

He also commands widespread respect as a veteran legislator, who has spent years in party leadership positions.

But Mr. Scalise also faces new health concerns as he undergoes treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, which some Mr. Jordan supporters cited as a reason not to vote for him.

Mr. Jordan was endorsed by former President Donald Trump and appeared to be the favorite of populist minded hardliners.

Mr. Trump in an interview with Fox News Radio earlier on Thursday said he did not object to Mr. Scalise as speaker.

“Steve is a man that is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer. I mean, he’s got to get better for himself,” he said in an interview with Fox News Radio.

Washington:

President Joe Biden on Saturday blamed “a small group of extreme Republicans” for a budget impasse that has placed the US government a week away from a shutdown, urging the lawmakers to resolve the issue.

Speaking at a Congressional Black Caucus awards dinner, Biden said he and top House Republican Kevin McCarthy had previously agreed on government spending levels.

“Now a small group of extreme Republicans don’t want to live up to the deal so now everyone in America could be forced to pay the price,” he said.

US lawmakers have until midnight on September 30 to reach an agreement on a spending bill, before funding for government services is due to dry up.

“Funding the government is one of the most basic responsibilities of Congress. It’s time for Republicans to start doing the job America elected them to do. Let’s get this done,” Biden added.

A government shutdown would put the finances of hundreds of thousands of workers at federal parks, museums, and other sites at risk, but it could also carry significant political costs for Biden, who is running for re-election.

The White House wants any budget bill passed by lawmakers to include $24 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Kyiv.

While such a plan is supported by Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, it is radically opposed by some members of the House.

The budget vote in Congress regularly turns into a standoff between the two parties, with each camp using the prospect of a shutdown to obtain concessions from the other — until a solution is found at the last minute.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)