Call for GOP to Drop Trump Draws Anger

Wall Street Journal had listed the party's election losses under the former president
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 4, 2021 4:45 PM CST
Editorial's List of GOP Losses Angers Trump
Presidential candidate Donald Trump tosses a copy of The Wall Street Journal after criticizing its coverage of his campaign in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2015.   (Bob Self/The Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville.com via AP)

In an editorial this week, the Wall Street Journal built a case for the Republican Party leaving Donald Trump in its rearview mirror. Listing the party's election losses of the House, Senate, and White House under Trump, the newspaper's editorial board decided Trump's a drag. Referring to Trump's self-congratulatory speech last weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Journal asked: "If 2020 was so fabulous, why are Republicans shut out of power up and down Pennsylvania Avenue?" What Trump is doing now, the Journal wrote, is "trying to rewrite this history as someone else’s fault—Democrats who cheated, Republicans who won’t 'fight,' a cowardly Supreme Court that includes three of his appointees, anyone but himself." On Thursday, Trump answered the editorial by releasing a statement in which he, indeed, blamed others—including the Journal.

Among those Trump blamed for various election losses were Gov. Brian Kemp and other Georgia officials, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, per the Hill. McConnell would have lost his own Kentucky election without Trump's endorsement, the former president said, though McConnell's victory margin was almost 20 percentage points—his largest since 2002. The Journal deserves blame, too, Trump said, while saying it lacks influence these days. "They fight for RINOS that have so badly hurt the Republican Party," his statement said. "That's where they are and that's where they will always be. Fortunately, nobody cares much about The Wall Street Journal editorial anymore. They have lost great credibility." The blaming is exactly the issue, the Journal said. "As long as Republicans focus on the grievances of the Trump past, they won’t be a governing majority." (More Donald Trump stories.)

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