3 months ago
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Donald Trump's Republican allies in the Senate are telegraphing a MAGA takeover of the last remaining vestige of the party's establishment wing.
Hours after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he would not comment on the Republican presidential primary, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, one of McConnell's top deputies, went on Fox News to do exactly the opposite.
"If you want to get the country back on track, which is what I want to do … we need Donald Trump back in the White House," Barrasso told viewers. “And that's why, tonight, I am endorsing Donald Trump for president of the United States."
Barrasso, the No. 3 Senate Republican, became the 20th of 49 Republican senators to back Trump but only the second member of leadership to do it. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, chair of the Senate Republican campaign arm, endorsed Trump last year in an effort to ease the friction with Trump, whose 2022 candidate picks helped sink the party’s Senate takeover chances in last year's midterms.
But as a potential successor to McConnell, Barrasso's high-profile announcement stands in stark contrast to the neutrality of Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, McConnell's right-hand man and another potential heir to the throne.
“[E]verybody’s going to come to their own conclusion," Thune, the minority whip, told Politico Wednesday, adding that he plans to stay neutral in the primary.
But in Trumplandia, neutrality is traitorous. Accordingly, House Republican leaders have made clear they are all-in for Trump.
