Archive for the ‘Republican’ Category

No. 2 House Republican refuses to say election wasnt stolen – PBS NewsHour

WASHINGTON The Houses second-ranking Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise, repeatedly refused to say on Sunday that the 2020 election wasnt stolen, standing by Donald Trumps liethat Democrat Joe Biden won the White House because of mass voter fraud.

More than 11 months after Americans picked their president and almost nine months since Biden was inaugurated, Scalise was unwilling during a national television interview to acknowledge the legitimacy of the vote, insteadsticking to his beliefthat the election results should not have been certified by Congress.

Ive been very clear from the beginning, he said. If you look at a number of states, they didnt follow their state-passed laws that govern the election for president. That is what the United States Constitution says. They dont say the states determine what the rules are. They say the state legislatures determine the rules, the Louisiana congressman said on Fox News Sunday.

Pressed by moderator Chris Wallace on whether the election went beyond a few irregularities to be considered stolen, Scalise responded: Its not just irregularities. Its states that did not follow the laws set which the Constitution says theyre supposed to follow.

Trump left office in January a few weeks after a mob of his supportersstormed the Capitol in a violent riotin an attempt to prevent Congress from formally declaring Biden the winner.

As Trump mulls a 2024 presidential bid, he has been intensifying efforts to shame and potentially remove members of his party who are seen as disloyal tohis bogus claims that last years election was illegitimate. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who is vying to become speaker if the GOP takes control after the 2022 midterm election, continues to defend Trump and his false assertions.

Ata rally Saturday in Iowa, Trump spent almost 30 minutes arguing falsely that he had won Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds stood by and welcomed his return to their state.

In fact, no election was stolen from Trump. His former attorney general, William Barr,found no evidenceof widespread election corruption. Allegations of massive voting fraud also have been dismissed by a succession of judges and refuted by state election officials and an arm of the Homeland Security Department during the Trump administration.

Scalise on Sunday appeared to be referring to the legal argument, made in several lawsuits backed by Trump before and after last Novembers election, that the Constitution gives the power of election administration exclusively to state lawmakers. The suits sought to invalidate a number of pandemic-era accommodations including expanded mail voting that were put in place by governors, state election officials and judges.

The high court ultimatelyturned away the cases, declining to rule on the matter. Theres no indication in any of the suits that changing the COVID-19 accommodations would have altered a states election results.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who is serving on a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, on Sunday slammed Scalise for spreading Trumps Big Lie.

Millions of Americans have been sold a fraud that the election was stolen, Cheney tweeted. Republicans have a duty to tell the American people that this is not true. Perpetuating the Big Lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic.

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No. 2 House Republican refuses to say election wasnt stolen - PBS NewsHour

WinRed pulls in $146M for Republican candidates in third quarter, passes $400M for the year – Fox News

FIRST ON FOX: The Republican online fundraising platform WinRed helped GOP candidates raise $146 million in the third quarter of 2021 as the midterm elections and a chance for Republicans to take back the House and the Senate near.

The total is $15 million more than WinRed's second-quarter tally and brings the total raised on the platform so far in 2021 to $401 million, according to numbers first shared with Fox News.

"Up and down the ballot, WinRed continues to exceed expectations and deliver real results for campaigns and committees across the country. Ahead of the 2022 election, WinRed is putting the GOP on the right path to raise more money than ever before," WinRed President Gerrit Lansing said in a statement.

WALKER OFF TO FAST START, HAULING IN $3.7M SINCE LAUNCHING SENATE BID

The $146 million performance is likely to be significantly less than what WinRed's Democratic counterpart ActBlue brought in between July and September, as ActBlue has been around for much longer than WinRed and still routinely outraises its GOP competitor.

But according to WinRed, it's raised a total of $2.5 billion for Republican candidates since it launched in 2019, a total ActBlue took 14 years to hit.

Both ActBlue and WinRed take a small fee from any donations to a campaign in exchange for the campaigns' use of their platform. WinRed recently changed its fee structure to direct more money to candidates.

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Among other notable third-quarter numbers, according to a WinRed spokesperson, were that it raised $23.8 million for state and local campaigns on WinRed in the past three months, and it raised $60.5 million from first-time donors. The average donation size for the quarter was $37.60.

With flagging approval numbers for President Biden and Democrats' agenda stalled in Congress, Republicans are optimistic that they can take back the House of Representatives in 2022. They face a difficult Senate map, however, because Republicans are defending far more seats than Democrats this cycle.

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WinRed pulls in $146M for Republican candidates in third quarter, passes $400M for the year - Fox News

The Republican hit job on Americas top soldier was revealing | Editorial – NJ.com

Former President Trump and other Republicans charged far out on a thin limb to demand that Americas highest-ranking military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, resign and that he be tried for treason.

This was based on an intriguing tidbit from a book that had not yet been published. Watergate journalist Bob Woodward and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa revealed that during Trumps final days in office, Milley called a Chinese general who thought Trump might launch an attack on his country to make clear that the president had no such intention.

The book never said the Joint chiefs chairman had been operating outside the scope of his authority, or conspiring with our enemy. But Republicans who had no clue about the context raced to the conclusion that Milley a dumbass and failed leader, in Trumps words had betrayed America.

Its since become clear that this was dead wrong. Trump officials had been fully appraised of Milleys call, which took place with eight people present. Hed just been doing his job; what hed been ordered to do by Defense Department leadership, based on intelligence that said the Chinese had gotten bad intel saying we wanted to attack them.

Other agencies were briefed on it afterward. This was no secret. But dont expect apologies to be forthcoming from folks like Sen. Marco Rubio, who accused Milley of a treasonous leak of classified information, or Sen. Rand Paul, who called for him to be court-martialed.

And it gets worse. Last week, as Milley and other top military leaders sat to answer questions about our withdrawal from Afghanistan, Republicans were at it again. They used their limited speaking time to attack Milley, a Trump appointee; even going so far as to baselessly charge that he violated his own chain of command. Please.

Its particularly ludicrous of them to accuse Milley of being a political actor, given that the one known time he did mistakenly dabble too far into politics was in service of Trump. After the notorious June 2020 photo-op in which Milley stood in uniform beside the president at Lafayette Square while federal police violently cleared out protestors at a nearby park, the general apologized for violating the militarys code that it should stay out of domestic politics.

Now, if anyone is injecting politics inappropriately, it is Republicans perhaps in an attempt to sabotage what should have been a sober examination of our actions in Afghanistan. In his testimony, Milley made clear that our military exit wasnt just a sudden thing that happened in August.

It began 10 years ago, and leaving for good was a commitment that Trump made in 2020. Military leaders ultimately talked him out of it, but Trump still ordered Milley to reduce troop levels to 2,500. When Biden took office, he had to decide either to leave entirely or put more troops in, re-inflaming the fight with the Taliban.

Republicans looking to pin this mess entirely on Biden thought it best to distract from that uncomfortable truth, by impugning Milleys character. The only one who offered him any apology was Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican from Wyoming, who was not among those who slandered him.

For any member of this committee, for any American, to question your loyalty to our nation, to question your understanding of our Constitution, your loyalty to our Constitution, your recognition and understanding of the civilian chain of command, is despicable, she said.

Remember this the next time these folks make a big show of respect for the military. They are the ones who put politics before patriotism, with this attack on Americas top soldier.

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The Republican hit job on Americas top soldier was revealing | Editorial - NJ.com

Six Republican counties in WNC pledged their support for Medicaid expansion. What’s changed? – North Carolina Health News

For months, the CEO of the Cherokee Indian Hospital has quietly traveled to county commission boards throughout the western part of the state, giving presentations on the benefits of Medicaid expansion. As local leaders throughout the conservative region show support for the policy, will they change the minds of state Republicans?

Nearly an hour into the August meeting of Macon Countys board of commissioners, Casey Cooper approached the podium. Cooper is the CEO of the Cherokee Indian Hospital. In addition to running the hospital, Cooper serves on a handful of different boards and has three kids in other words, hes busy.

In the interest of efficiency, I will just jump right to the punchline, he began. Its my hope that at the conclusion of this presentation tonight that you will feel compelled to support a resolution to help close the coverage gap in North Carolina.

By close the coverage gap Cooper was talking about expanding Medicaid to offer health insurance to the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid right now, but dont earn enough to qualify for subsidies to buy an insurance plan on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

He had good reason to believe Macon County commissioners might support it. Cooper had already given the same presentation to Swain and Jackson counties Boards of Commissioners the month before, after which they unanimously passed resolutions supporting Medicaid expansion.

Jackson and Swain, both rural counties in western North Carolina, arent exactly outliers. In signing their resolutions, they joined two towns in the region, Waynesville in Haywood County and Franklin in Macon County, which already signed resolutions supporting expansion, along with Reidsville in Rockingham County, and two other rural counties Watauga and Franklin that signed their own resolutions.

Brian McMahan, the chairman of Jackson Countys Board of Commissioners, explained that he was in favor of Medicaid expansion before Cooper came to speak with the board, but he described the presentation as thorough and compelling. He said it strengthened his resolve.

We literally have people who are dying because they dont have access to health care, McMahan said. And if thats not enough reason, the fact [is] that its a job creator.

Ben Bushyhead, the chairman of Swain Countys Board of Commissioners, said the same.

We cant afford not to do it, he said. It is not a Republican-Democrat thing at all. Its what the needs are within our county and the people who need these services.

Though Swain and Jackson voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 election, their county commission boards are majority Democratic. Franklin and Wataugas boards were also majority Democratic at the time they passed the resolutions, while the mayors of Waynesville and Franklin were elected without party affiliations.

In North Carolina politics, the issue of Medicaid expansion usually falls along rigid partisan lines: Democrats support it, Republicans oppose it. But Cooper held steadfast to the belief that this Republican region of the state could be persuaded to depart from the party line if only someone would give residents the straight facts.

Macons board agreed to hear Coopers presentation, but gaining the countys support would perhaps pose a greater ideological challenge than Cooper faced in the other WNC counties: four Republicans and one Democrat sit on Macons Board of Commissioners. Nonetheless, he was ready to make his case.

Back in 2019, Dale Wiggins, the Republican then-chairman of Graham Countys Board of Commissioners, publicly clashed with Senate leader Republican Phil Berger (Eden) over Medicaid expansion. Graham Countys board passed a unanimous resolution supporting a bill, co-sponsored by then-Rep. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin), which would have expanded Medicaid coverage.

What we have learned is if you cut out all the political rhetoric and just get down to the real facts of this issue, which then that puts it on a human being level, its not about Republicans. Its not about Democrats, Wiggins said in a recent conversation. Its about my neighbors, your neighbors, [who] are human beings. And in 2021, people need health care.

Wiggins and Cooper began working closely together at the end of 2020 while serving on the North Carolina Council on Health Care Coverage, a bipartisan group convened by Gov. Roy Cooper tasked with studying how other states expanded health care coverage to its residents, and coming up with plans for how North Carolina might do the same.

North Carolina is one of 12 states that has not expanded Medicaid coverage. The Affordable Care Act originally mandated that states expand their Medicaid coverage, but a 2012 Supreme Court ruling overturned that part of the law, instead making expansion of each states Medicaid program an opt-in policy.

In order to qualify for Medicaid coverage in North Carolina today, Casey Cooper explained in an interview, If you are an adult, you have to be below 42 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify, and, I mean, thats horrible. Thats like $7,000 or $7,300 a year.

If youre a mama with two babies and its not uncommon, right, to be a single mom with two babies you dont qualify for Marketplace subsidies until you get to $21,000 a year, Cooper said. If you make between $9,000 and $21,000 a year, you cant get coverage.

People who work full-time minimum wage jobs in North Carolina fall squarely into this gap. State minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, meaning someone working 40-hours a week would bring home $14,500 before taxes.

Expansion would open up eligibility to workers with and without children earning below 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($23,791 for a family of two).

In North Carolina, there are about a million nonelderly people who are uninsured, according to a 2020 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Were the state to expand Medicaid, between 400,000 and 626,000 of those people would become eligible for coverage. A good chunk of those people live in western North Carolina.

Cooper said it was overwhelmingly clear that rural North Carolinians and their health systems would benefit from expansion. As he and Wiggins began planning how to get the message out, the advocacy coalition Care4Carolina also got involved.

In March Brittney Lofthouse, engagement coordinator in western N.C. for Care4Carolina, joined Cooper and Wiggins on a Medicaid expansion information panel held at Southwestern Community College.

I lost my dad to cancer in 2013. And one of the biggest reasons why we lost him as quick as we did was he didnt have health insurance, so he couldnt get treatment for his cancer, said Lofthouse, a Sylva native.

For decades, studies have found that people who are uninsured are far more likely to die from cancer than those with insurance. Lofthouses father died just a month before she gave birth to her first child.

We wanted to focus on how else other families in western North Carolina could be impacted, she said. Knowing that I lost my dad to cancer, and I knew that not having insurance was a primary factor in that, we wanted to see what we could do to kind of bolster that support in the west and kind of dispel a lot of those myths.

They imagined that by addressing each county individually they could tease out the specific data that might persuade people, regardless of their party affiliation, such as how many more people would gain coverage, how many jobs would be created, how much money the counties might save on things like health care for people in jail awaiting pretrial detention, and more.

Cooper gives essentially the same presentation to each county. He begins with context about who conducted and who funded the research hes about to present Georgetown University, George Washington University, and the task force on coverage expansion that he sits on.

He follows with a disclaimer: This data has been shared pretty widely across the state and to my knowledge has not been contested or questioned by anybody.

Then, he customizes his presentation with county specific facts.

While making his case to Macon County this summer, Cooper said about 21.7 percent of your working, nonelderly adults are uninsured, and closing the coverage gap could lead to providing coverage for about 1,300 of your citizens, create about 62 jobs and about $169,000 in county revenues, and about $10 million a year in new business activity.

Then Cooper goes through the myths about expansion.

One of the misconceptions about closing the coverage gap is that the folks that are uninsured are too triflin to work, and its simply not true. The data clearly demonstrates that the majority of folks that are uncovered are working, he told the Macon commissioners. Unfortunately, theyre working and theyre working poor.

Cooper points out that many of the uninsured in the western part of the state are white people, mothers and veterans.

Most of the time, its mamas who are taking care of babies who still have Medicaid, they got their babies covered, theyre getting well child visits for the babies, but these mamas are going without coverage, he said.

Cooper argues that expanded coverage would help rural hospitals by decreasing the number of uninsured people who use the health care services, but arent able to pay their bills. Uninsured patients overusing the emergency room often put rural hospital budgets in the red.

The more folks you can bring into your system that have health insurance coverage, the more people that you can use to offset the loss youre going to have from the uncompensated care, Cooper said.

Then, he gets to the biggest sticking point for many: Theres another misconception that the state of North Carolina cant afford [Medicaid expansion].

Over the next three years, Cooper explains, the cost of expanding Medicaid coverage in the state is estimated to cost about $5 billion. Federal law guarantees that the federal government pays 90 percent of the cost of expansion beneficiaries indefinitely, leaving the state to cover about $500 million over the next three years.

The state has identified a number of ways to foot its 10 percent of the bill, he said. Options include premium tax collections on the health care entities now providing coverage through the states Medicaid transformation program, taxes on hospital assessments, and money the state will no longer need to spend on uninsured people.

Now is exactly the right time for North Carolina to expand because there is an additional $1.7 billion worth of incentives for the state of North Carolina if it expands Medicaid, he told the commissioners.

In an effort to convince the 12 states that have not yet expanded Medicaid to do so, the federal government is offering to increase their contribution to each states program by 5 percent. In 2022, the federal government will pay almost 74 percent of North Carolinas Medicaid cost, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. If the state expanded, the federal government would pay 79 percent of the cost for those already enrolled in the program, and 90 percent of the cost of coverage for those newly added.

On your regular Medicaid, that increase by 5 percent is estimated to be $1.7 billion over the eight quarters following expansion. And that $1.7 billion has been estimated to cover the state share for six years. That gives the hospitals and the health plans six years to ramp up and to be able to pay the assessments, Cooper said.

Not only is it affordable, this is exactly the right time for the state to do it.

After a few minutes of discussion and questions, the Macon County Board of Commissioners set the resolution to a vote. It passed, 4-1.

Republican commissioner Paul Higdon, the sole no, said at the meeting he thought Coopers presentation was good and compelling, but that the commissioners were the wrong audience for it, considering its a policy voted on at the state level.

Those who voted in favor of Medicaid expansion resolutions disagree.

McMahan, the chairman of Jackson Countys Board of Commissioners, said, It sends a message to the state government to say, We feel like its important for our community, for our area.

Im here. I live and work in the district Sometimes theres this sense of disconnect. [State and federal representatives] dont really have the connections that local people have, McMahan said. I think having that recommendation coming from a local government entity carries some weight.

If you can get all 100 counties in our state to speak with one voice, its probably the most powerful thing you can have, concurred Macon County Commissioner Ronnie Beale. If you get the 548 County Commissioners pulled in one direction, you can get about anything you want passed.

Following Macon Countys yes-vote, Cooper gave his presentation to the commissioners in Haywood, Clay and Cherokee counties. Majority Republican Clay County passed a unanimous resolution in support of expansion last week.

Cherokee Countys board has not yet voted on the resolution, and no commissioners responded to requests for comment.

Kevin Ensley, the Republican chairman of Haywood Countys Board of Commissioners, said he does not plan to put the resolution to a vote.

I mean, I support it. And I think another one of my commissioners does, but I got three more that are a little uncomfortable with it, I guess, he said. Im not ready to put it on the agenda to vote on because I dont think itll pass.

Jennifer Best and Tommy Long are two of the hesitant Haywood County commissioners. Best is an insurance agent. She hasnt sold health insurance for a few years, but when she did she saw many people who fell in the coverage gap.

They deserve coverage, too, but I just dont know who pays for it, Best said.

The funding of the program is also what gives Long pause, though he complimented the presentation.

His comments were well taken and his points about the impoverished western counties health care needs sobering, he said, Certain counties here in the mountains and the Eastern Band have circumstances that limited Medicaid expansion would certainly help.

The Raleigh News and Observer reported in early October that Senate leader Berger indicated behind closed doors that he was open to negotiations involving expansion. However, in a statement last week, Bergers office maintained the senators opinion has not changed, and that he believes Medicaid expansion is bad policy.

At the federal level, legislators are considering offering Marketplace subsidies for residents in non-expansion states who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line and providing coverage through a federal Medicaid program.

In the meantime, Coopers presentations and the votes on local resolutions chug on. At the end of September, Brevard, the largest town in Transylvania County, signed a resolution supporting expansion. Monday evening, Cooper is set to make his case before the Transylvania County Commission.

Story note: A representative for Care4Carolina is quoted in this story. Care4Carolina pays for a sponsorship on NC Health News website.

Correction: This story initially said Medicaid expansion would open eligibility for those making 100 to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate. Medicaid expansion would open eligibility for anyone making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate.

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Six Republican counties in WNC pledged their support for Medicaid expansion. What's changed? - North Carolina Health News

Nikki Haley outlines her vision of the Republican future, with or without Donald Trump – USA TODAY

RNC: Nikki Haley calls out Democrats' 'cancel culture'

Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the UN, praises the efforts of President Trump while being critical of former Vice President Joe Biden.

USA TODAY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON Nikki Haley told fellow Republicans Tuesday that they have an urgent mission to renew their conservative convictions, the latest in a series of high-profile speeches by potential GOP presidential candidates maneuvering in the shadow of former President Donald Trump.

"A large portion of our people are plagued by self-doubt or even by hatred of America. Its a pandemic much more damaging than any virus," Haley said in a heavily promoted speech attheRonald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute in Simi Valley, Calif.

Likeformer Vice PresidentMike Pence, former Secretary of StateMike Pompeoand former New Jersey Gov.Chris Christie before her,Haley joined a"Time for Choosing" speaker series sponsored by the the institute dedicated to a Republican icon, President Ronald Reagan.

Many of the speeches areseen as overtures to possible presidential campaigns in 2024.

Stressing her experience as governor of South Carolina and then ambassador to the United Nations, Haley saidRepublicans also need to confront enemies abroad and face down Democratic pessimists at home.

Haley made few direct references toTrump she defended him against media criticism of his Russia policybut spent more time attacking President Joe Biden and the Democrats as well as foreign antagonists like China and Iran.

More: 'We shouldnt have followed him': Nikki Haley sharply condemns Trump's post-election behavior

More: Republican feud: Donald Trump goes after Paul Ryan for going after him

Many political analysts say other Republicans probably hope Trump does not run again, given his fundraising, his high name recognitionand his remaining support among Republican voters despite the tumultuous ending of his presidency in January.

"If Trump runs, they probably don't have a chance," said Jack Pitney,professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California.

If Trump doesn't run in 2024, Pitney said, the other would-be candidates "wantto be ready for a window of opportunity that will open and close very quickly. Otherwise, somebody else will seize the moment, leaving them behind, probably forever."

Haley told The Associated Press in April that she would support Trump if he ranagain and not run herself.

Citing China, Russia, Iranand Islamic terrorists as formidable adversaries, Trump's ambassador to the United Nations said the U.S. is engaged in a "clash of civilizations" and that "the bad guys think the good guys lack thewill to win."

As for Biden and the Democrats, Haley hit themon points ranging from the Afghanistan pullout to the claims of some that the United States is a racist nation.

"The most important mission of our time is to stop our national self-loathing and to regain our courage and renew our convictions," Haley said.

Arguing thatDemocrats "don't even believe in America" and have "given up on America as a colorblind society," Haley said that they "see Americas flaws as more profound than its strengths. They deny the massive progress weve made, and they punish anyone who disagrees."

The daughter of Indian immigrants and a businesswoman before entering politics in South Carolina, Haley said: "I havent just seen the American story. Ivelivedthe American story."

"Where we lead, the world follows," Haley said. "When we speak, the world listens. What we are, the world wants.

Haley also discussed her decision in 2015 to remove the Confederate battle flag from the top of the South Carolina State Capitolless than a month after a white man killed nine Black people at a church in Charlestonin a racially motivated mass murder.

Urging Republicans to expand their political coalition nationwide, Haley said "we cannot ignore minorities and women."

More: Nikki Haley: Confederate flag could not be taken down in South Carolina in today's 'outrage culture'

More: Ex-White House press secretary warns Trump 'will be about revenge' if reelected

Since Trump left the White House on Jan. 20,Haley has offered mixed messages on the former president.

Shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol,Haley told Politico that Trump "let us down" and added that"he went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again."

Just months later, Haley told The Associated Press that "I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it."

In an interview published Tuesday before her speech, Haley told The Wall Street Journal that she disagreed with Trump's claim about a "stolen election" in 2020, saying that "there wasfraud in the election, but I dont think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction."

Haley also told the Journal: "We need him in the Republican Party. I dont want us to go back to the days before Trump.

Other potential Republican candidates have navigated the Trump question in their speeches at the Reagan institute.

Last month,New Jersey'sChristie saidRepublicans "need to renounce the conspiracy theorists andtruth deniers." He also urged Republicans to face the "realities" of the 2020 election:"Pretending we won when we lost is a waste of time and energy and credibility."

Pence, Trump's vice president, praised Trump in his speech in June and compared him favorably to Reagan. Pence also touted his decision to reject Trump's demands that he spike or delay certification of electoral votes that sealed Biden's victory in the Electoral College.

"There'salmost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president," Pence said.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is not running for president in 2024, offered the most anti-Trump speech in the Reagan speakers series.

"If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or of second-rate imitations, then we're not going anywhere," Ryan said in his remarks in May.

Keeping his own eye on 2024,Trump has resumed his political rallies, including an event Saturday in Iowa. He and his political action committees are raising money at campaign-style rates. While he remains banned on Twitter and Facebook, Trump is issuing a steady stream of written statements attacking the Biden administration and other critics like Ryan.

In a series of interviews, Trump has taken aim at potential Republican rivals.

Asked last week about the prospects of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump told Yahoo Finance: "I think most people would drop out. I think he would drop out. And, if I faced him, I would beat him like I would beat everyone else, frankly."

Trump also said he hasn't formally declared a 2024 election run: "Isaid that if I do run, I think that I'll do extremely well, and I'm looking not only at polls, I'm looking at the enthusiasm."

The former president does have potential headwinds, including an investigation by prosecutors in New York into past financial dealings. Prosecutors in Georgia are investigating his efforts as president to pressure local officials into altering the election results in the state.

The Reagan institutewill continue the speakers series in 2022. On Tuesday, it announced a speakers' list that includes prominent critics of Trump but not Trump himself.

The list of speakers includes Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., one of 10 House Republicans to vote for impeachment of Trump over Jan. 6 and now the target of a Trump-backed primary challenger; and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who also has said he wants the party to move past Trump.

Other speakers include Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, both of whom have questioned Trump's leadership of the party.

Trump enjoys high approval ratings from Republicans, many of whom believe his false claims about the election. Many observers believe Trump will run again,barring health or legal problems.

Said Pitney: "Unless he is in a hospital bed or jail cell in 2024, hes running."

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Nikki Haley outlines her vision of the Republican future, with or without Donald Trump - USA TODAY