Former GOP Rep Blasts ‘Feckless’ RNC For Enforcing ‘Loyalty Pledge’ After Republican Candidate Protests
Former Republican Rep. David Jolly of Florida, who’s now with The Forward Party, called the Republican National Committee “feckless” for requiring all GOP presidential candidates to support the nominee — even one who faces 37 federal counts — after former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) asked them to drop it.
Jolly appeared as a panelist on MSNBC to discuss the “loyalty pledge” that all GOP candidates are required to sign. Politico reported that this week, Hutchinson was denied when he asked the RNC to change the pledge, in light of Donald Trump‘s legal entanglements.
“It makes perfect sense that the RNC’s position is, ‘You will stand by him’ even as… the ship goes down,” said host Nicolle Wallace.
“Yeah, Nicolle, just a humiliating moment for the Republican National Committee, kind of demonstrating the difference between a cult and a political organization requiring this absolute fealty,” Jolly said, adding:
And understand, we passed the fact that he’s now been found civilly liable for sexual assault — that, apparently wasn’t even a threshold question for this pledge. The question of whether or not he has mishandled the nation’s secrets is a threshold question and the RNC batted it down and said, “We don’t care — you have to support our guy.”
Now, the interesting thing, the second reason it’s humiliating, Nicolle, is, I’m not sure the candidates themselves actually care. Chris Christie said, “I’ll sign it, even though I’ll never support Donald Trump, and I’ll treat this piece of paper the same way Donald Trump treated it eight years ago,” which is to ignore it. Donald Trump himself probably won’t agree with this. So, the RNC, a really a feckless organization at this point. Even those who will go along with the RNC are saying, “But I don’t really mean it.”
But at the end of the day, let the whole world know, let everybody know, what the Republican National Committee said: “If you are going to run for president, that means you must support a felon who was found civilly liable for sexual assault. If that’s our nominee, we’re expecting you to stick with him.”
Watch the clip via MSNBC above.
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