RNC At War: Resolutions Drafted To Protect $$$ From Trump While David Bossie Looks To Crown Him

You did not have to be Nostradamus to see this one coming. This was totally to be expected. The RNC is meeting in early March and it’s fully expected at that time that the coffers will be made available to Donald Trump to pay his legal bills. His daughter-in-law, Lara, has openly stated on television that she believes that the American people (i.e. MAGA) want to see that happen. So only one of two courses were inevitable here: either the RNC was just going to lie down and spread its legs for Trump, or somebody was going to say, to Hell with this. A former RNC chair said to Hell with this and took action, per the Dispatch:

The Republican National Committee could vote on resolutions at an upcoming spring meeting that, if approved, would prohibit the RNC from covering millions of dollars in legal bills being racked up by Donald Trump, and would bar the party from treating the former president as its presumptive presidential nominee before he secures the requisite convention delegates. How much total support the resolutions have is unclear, as is whether or not they’ll secure enough backing to be granted formal consideration under RNC rules.

You get from the guarded language here that there are two camps and indeed that’s the case.

The draft resolutions, sponsored by Henry Barbour, a veteran RNC committeeman from Mississippi, were obtained by The Dispatch Saturday morning and are currently being circulated among committee members in advance of the party’s scheduled March 7-9 meeting in Houston. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has signaled she will step down at that time to make way for the committee to elect a replacement, almost assuredly current RNC counsel and North Carolina GOP Chairman Michael Whatley, who is being backed by Trump. Members are also expected to install the former president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as vice chair.

And here’s where the plot thickens. RNC committeeman David Bossie, first reported by The Dispatch, would have declared Trump the presumptive nominee before he earned the necessary 1,215 nominating delegates to July’s Milwaukee convention. This goes along with Trump’s basic posture all along that he’s running as an incumbent, although he had enough sense to say he was against the idea after it went public.

Plus, on Friday Trump’s campaign chief, Chris LaCivita, told NBC News he would not allow RNC funds to be used to cover Trump’s legal expenses after he takes over as chief operating officer of the committee. That role has been “created for him by Trump.” Interesting that a political campaign would need a COO, but then nothing about Trump’s political life is normal, so at least this fits the overall scheme of things. What I want to see is how Lara Trump handles the RNC coffers without paying Trump’s legal bills. That is going to be some sleight of hand.

Here’s the lay of the land and it is complicated:

1. Trump is set to take over the management of the RNC because he’s putting his own people in place at the top, election denier Michael Whatley and his daughter-in-law, Lara.
2. Trump’s the presumptive nominee at this point, although not officially. There are two schools of thought over whether his nomination will become official early, thereby short circuiting traditional RNC procedures.
3. Some committee members are understandably nervous and want assurances that the RNC can remain a neutral body “in a Republican primary in which Nikki Haley continues to compete—and protect its coffers from being used to pay for the tens of millions of dollars Trump is spending to defend himself against indictments in four different criminal cases.” 

That is a tall order. Here’s what it looks like in resolution form:

WHEREAS, The Republican National Committee must serve as a neutral player in primaries; in fact, RNC Rule 11 states the RNC shall not “contribute money or in-kind aid to any candidate for any public or party office of that state, except the nominee of the Republican Party or a candidate who is unopposed in the Republican Primary after the filing deadline for that office. WHEREAS, the Republican Presidential Primary is not over; it is contested with two current qualified candidates, who have each won delegates. … RESOLVED, That the Republican National Committee and its leadership will stay neutral throughout the Presidential primary and not take on additional staff from any of the active Presidential campaigns until a nominee is clearly determined by reaching 1,215 delegates.

The draft resolution related to Trump’s legal expenditures is worded in such a way that it does not single out Trump and codifies that the RNC should only spend money on political activity to elect Republicans up and down the ticket, and not the personal dealings of any candidate. It reads:

WHEREAS, the Republican National Committee should focus its spending on political efforts associated with winning elections and make clear from this point forward that the RNC’s financial resources are to be used to assist candidates across the country winning elections in 2024. WHEREAS, spending any RNC financial resources for any candidate’s personal, business, or political legal expenses, not related to the 2024 election cycle, does not serve the RNC’s primary mission of helping to elect our candidates in 2024; therefore, be it RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee will not pay the legal bills of any of our candidates for any federal or state office, but will focus our spending on efforts directly related to the 2024 election cycle.

The full text of both resolutions can be found here. At least somebody at the RNC is fighting back. Meanwhile, you’re seeing headlines like, “the RNC is Republican in name only” and that is yet another step into the abyss for the GOP. But I am glad to see any pushback towards normalcy and tradition at all. Those are signs that not all is lost. Yet.