Things do not look good for the Republican Party as the White House ex-chief strategist has laid out his plans. Steve Bannon and the closest allies of President Donald Trump are now beefing up their strategies and primary challenges against incumbent GOP senators, CNN reported. Many believed that this demarche may only worsen the tension between the White House and Republican leaders as well as potentially undermine the Republican Party’s prospects in the coming general elections next year.
The grand plan of Steve Bannon
This is what many have been waiting for.
President Donald Trump’s ex-chief strategist, Steve Bannon, leads an all-out war against the Republican establishment and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The former White House chief strategist already started conducting covert meetings with potential insurgent challengers who he swore to give his full support. The meetings were part of Bannon’s preparations to advance their party’s agenda against the Republicans.
Moreover, Robert Mercer expressed his total support to Bannon’s efforts against the GOP senators. The conservative mega-donor told Bannon that he is ready to fund his endeavor and will pour millions of dollars into effective attacks against incumbent Republican senators. Aside from Mercer, Bannon also has an unidentified confidant in an outside organization that will definitely push President Trump’s agenda as well as openly target Republican lawmakers.
Meanwhile, senior Republicans were truly alarmed by Bannon’s plan which they considered disparaging. What worried them is the fact that Bannon’s move will definitely exhaust the GOP’s coffers by millions of dollars just to take on the Democrats during the general election next year. The move will essentially hurt GOP’s finances.
On several occasions, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed his concern about the danger of primaries to his members. In a press conference, the senator emphasized that primaries could actually jeopardize his slim four-seat majority.
A former chief of staff of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Josh Holmes, had thoughts against Bannon’s plan.
For Holmes, Bannon’s move appeared to be an awfully myopic strategy. Holmes believed that it is rather uncalled for to invest time and energy in attacking people (GOP senators) who are just transporting the US president’s water in the House of Representatives to the benefit of the Americans who are trying to impeach him.
However, Steve Bannon hardly paid attention to Holmes’ warnings. Instead, he went on huddling with Danny Tarkanian, a lawyer who is up to challenge Senator Dean Heller. During one of their meetings, Bannon told Tarkanian that he has his full support in the race against Senator Heller who apparently declined to endorse Donald Trump during the campaign last year. Bannon and Tarkanian’s meeting took place on Thursday at the Capitol Hill townhouse.
The place has become a base of operations for Breitbart News, which is the conservative website that the ex-chief strategist supervises.
The target list of Steve Bannon
Here is the list that everybody wants to know. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona is expected to lead Bannon’s target list. Senator Flake is known to be an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. Just recently, he published a book lamenting the rise of President Trump. This is the reason why Steve Bannon is so hell-bent on unseating Senator Flake from Congress.
Meanwhile, David Bossie, Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign manager, is also making his move. Bossie has started recruiting potential primary challengers, which include Matt Salmon.
But the former representative expressed his unwillingness to join the contest. Regardless of its outcome, many still believe that Bannon’s anti-GOP incumbent efforts could significantly reform the 2018 primary landscape, provided however that the move will start to materialize.
