COLUMBUS-- Georgia Republicans have a problem. In fact, they have a few. Former President Donald Trump, the man most beloved by the base of the party, has now been indicted on dozens of criminal charges in two states.
Trump is also polling at the head of the pack in the Georgia GOP primary race in 2024, even as polls show he’s also the one candidate Republicans could nominate who would likely lose to Joe Biden. And, as was on vivid display in Columbus over the weekend, while Trump may be the favorite of a majority of the base, he is also dividing the state Republican party from the inside out.
You only had to look at the crowd Saturday as Trump strode onto the stage at the Georgia GOP convention, smiling and drinking in the applause, to see the dilemma facing the Republican party.
While most of the assembled delegates stood to cheer his arrival, some did not. Others sat with their arms crossed in silence, while chairs in the back of sold-out weekend remained empty.
The convention didn’t include the Republicans ousted from delegate spots earlier this year by pro-Trump forces. And delegates didn’t hear from the most popular Republican in the state, Gov. Brian Kemp, who skipped the pro-Trump scene altogether after his own battles with the former president.
Kemp has urged Republicans to look forward, but the message from Trump Saturday was all about the past.
Even before Trump’s speech, plenty of longtime Republicans in Columbus told us they were not sure where the party is headed. Some weren’t sure they want to be a part of it anymore.
One group of Fulton Republicans dubbed themselves “the Resistance” and shared wide-eyed reactions to Arizona firebrand Kari Lake, who ended her Friday dinner speech with an unsubtle message for “RINO’s,” prosecutors, the “fake news, media.”
“If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me,” Lake said. “And most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA!”
Delegates also heard from U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, who endorsed Trump from the stage, and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who promised to impeach Biden and at least four members of his administration.
Plenty of speakers insisted the party is not divided, and that the storyline is a figment of fake news. But away from the stage, it wasn’t hard to find Republicans who felt differently.
Greg Clifton, a GOP delegate and former mayor of Fayetteville, said he’s worried about the divisions in the party. “You have the always-Trumpers, the never-Trumpers and the sometimes-Trumpers,” he said. “God help us if the Democrats get back in again.”
Katy Sharp, a longtime Georgia GOP strategist who supports Kemp, said the national dynamics are killing the state GOP.
“I truthfully hate the Republican Party right now,” she said.
“Georgia has seen in the last three election cycles that we are pivotal here. I feel like it’s my mission and a lot of people my age and younger to grow a better Republican Party.
Jason Shepherd, the former chairman of the Cobb Republicans said he sees the state party apparatus moving even more toward Trump as new pro-Trump delegates take over, but that could cripple the party in the end.
“A lot of (the division) is being driven by the personality and candidacy of Donald Trump,” he said. “Should Donald Trump not get the nomination, or should he not win the White House, I think you’ll see a lot of his supporters start leaving the party and we’ll have a lot of work to rebuild for the people of Georgia.”
Not all of the Republicans there were worried about divisions. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins said a fight over candidates is part of the primary process. And he dismissed the new federal charges against Trump as “Russiagate 2.0.”
That’s what Trump called the charges in his speech to delegates Saturday, too, when he delivered a 90-minute river of thoughts about himself, the 2020 election he claims was rigged against him and the court system he said is rigged against him now, too.
“Witch-hunt, witch-hunt, scam, hoax. It’s called election interference,” he said, adding that the 2022 primaries in Georgia, which most of his hand-picked canddiates lost, were rigged, too.
The former president went on at length about his “boxes,” meaning the papers he packed up and took with him to Mar-A-Lago, including hundreds marked secret or classified.
“Biden’s got boxes in Chinatown, DC. He’s got boxes all over the place,” Trump said, adding, “Mine is peanuts.”
Along with denying any wrongdoing, Trump also told the delegates the prosecutors are out to get him, too, including in Atlanta.
He called Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is investigating him for election fraud, a deranged “lunatic, Marxist district attorney.” And he wondered aloud about the name of the special counsel who investigated the secret documents case.
“Jack Smith, what do you think his name used to be?” Trump asked the crowd. “‘Jack’ is so innocent. He’s deranged.” Ultimately, all of the prosecutors and investigators are cowards, he said.
The all-about-Trump show kept many delegates entranced, but not all. Several got up to leave as time dragged on. One texted me to say, “I don’t think I’m a Republican anymore.”
Throughout Trump’s speech Saturday, the former president frequently stopped to tell the delegates that prosecutors aren’t really after him, they’re after his supporters. And it isn’t about me anyway, he told them. It’s about you.
Except it really is about Trump and it always has been.
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