Former RNC Chair Says If Republicans ‘Had Our Sh*t Together,’ GOP Would Dominate Congress

Joe Walsh/White Flag podcast

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele lamented the Trumpian state of his party, telling former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) the GOP doesn’t have its “shit together.”

On Friday’s edition of Walsh’s White Flag podcast, the former congressman asked Steele if Democrats realize how fortunate they are to be facing a party whose de facto leader is former President Donald Trump:

WALSH: Hey, Michael. You talk to Democrats a lot. Do Democrats understand how freaking lucky they’ve been that the Republican Party is so batshit, Trumpy crazy?

STEELE: I don’t think they do. Honest to God, I don’t think they do, Joe. I don’t think they recognize that if we had our shit together, this wouldn’t even be close. Mitch–

WALSH: You don’t think they get that?

STEELE: –McConnell would be sitting there with about a seven or eight-seat majority in the Senate and the House would be closer to the numbers that I got in 2010.

Despite predictions of a “red wave” in the 2022 midterms, Republicans lost a Senate seat and their chance at the majority. Meanwhile, their candidates for House underperformed and retook the chamber by only a narrow margin.

“If not for how batshit, anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian nutbag, nutball the Republican Party is, the Democratic Party on policy is in trouble,” Walsh said.

Trump currently leads the Republican field by wide margins in poll after poll. Some anti-Trump conservatives had hoped a viable alternative would emerge, but so far they have been frustrated by the data. His closest challenger is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who trails Trump by at least 30 points in multiple surveys. The governor has been trying to outflank the former president on cultural issues, but does not seem to be making much headway.

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