The former chair of the Florida Republican Party compared the carnage of firings against the Republican National Committee under new chair Lara Trump to ‘a funeral’ and leading the party in the wrong direction.
New Trump-aligned leadership at the Republican National Committee is preparing to purge at least 60 staffers across multiple departments of the party, which is now led by former President Trump’s daughter-in-law.
Two people close to the RNC and Trump’s campaign said the process to remove dozens of officials began Monday, according to Politico.
Al Cardenas, who leads the GOP in the Sunshine State and is the husband of prominent anti-Trump ‘The View’ co-host Ana Navarro, told MSNBC on Friday that this is being done to use national party funds to fight former President Trump’s election complaints.
‘They are moving a small team to integrate themselves into a presidential campaign in name only. They concentrate on lawyers and electoral fraud,” he said.
Al Cardenas, the former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida likened the carnage of firings against the Republican National Committee under the new chair Lara Trump to ‘a funeral’ and leading the party in the wrong direction
New Trump-aligned leadership at the Republican National Committee is preparing to purge at least 60 staffers across multiple departments of the party, which is now led by former President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara (pictured)
Cardenas – who represented the party as a delegate at every Republican convention from 1976 to 2008 – believes the layoffs may be closer to 90 people and said he was devastated by what is happening to the party.
“This is nonsense, I mean, it’s just spending millions to perpetuate the fallacy that there was election fraud in 2020,” he said.
‘That is all. That’s all it is, but you know, replacing the RNC and what it does, for me, I’ve given it 40 years of my life. It breaks my heart.’
Cardenas, a senior adviser to Jeb Bush’s failed 2016 campaign, worries about what will happen to the party’s vote, noting how the RNC is supposed to be working ‘on voter registration’ and turning people out.
“It takes away an important component of getting your communities involved in the political process and now it’s all going to be dictated from the top and you wonder what our future is going to be during the vote,” he said.
He called the whole process like being ‘at a funeral’ and said: ‘You know, 1854, the birth of the Republican Party, 2024, the demise of the Republican Party.’
The former president’s takeover of the RNC was cemented last week when his daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected co-chair during the spring convention in Houston, Texas, and loyalist North Carolina GOP Chairman Michael Whatley was selected to replace Ronna McDaniel.
Former Chair McDaniel announced she would end her tenure at the RNC after months of pressure from Trump for her to step aside after his allies turned on her.
Cardenas, who leads the GOP in the Sunshine State and is the husband of prominent anti-Trump ‘The View’ co-host Ana Navarro, told MSNBC on Friday that this is being done to use national party funds to fight former President Trump’s. election complaints
The former president’s takeover of the RNC was cemented last week when his daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected co-chair during the spring convention in Houston, Texas, and loyalist North Carolina GOP Chairman Michael Whatley was chosen to replace Ronna McDaniel
Meanwhile, the new management expects to let go five dozen employees across the policy, communications and data departments — including five senior staffers whose names were not shared with Politico.
Vendor contracts may also be cut, the sources warn.
When rumors of an RNC shake-up emerged last year, there were concerns about major staff cuts attributed to taming the ‘red tape’ and helping focus funds on winning elections.
The RNC’s new Chief Operating Officer Sean Cairncross sent a letter to policy and data staff claiming that management is “in the process of evaluating the organization and staff to ensure the building is aligned” with its vision.
“During this process, certain employees are asked to resign and reapply for a position on the team,” he noted.
The rapid and sweeping firings underline Trump’s rapid takeover of the party. Usually the campaign and RNC merge once there is a nominee – but the GOP doesn’t hold its official nominating convention until July.
Trump is expected to reach the threshold of 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the nomination after Tuesday’s primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington states.
New RNC leadership assumed operational control of the party Monday after last week’s election at the spring convention in Texas.
The rapid and sweeping firings underline Trump’s rapid takeover of the party. Normally, the campaign and RNC merge when there is a nominee — but the GOP doesn’t hold its official nominating convention until July
New RNC leadership assumed operational control of the party Monday after last week’s election at the spring convention in Texas
Lara Trump, the wife of Trump’s second son Eric, said Sunday that the GOP will be laser-focused on prosecuting ‘election cheats’ after she was unanimously elected RNC co-chair on Friday.
‘I can guarantee you that over the next 8 months you will see things happening at the Republican National Committee unlike anything you have ever seen before. Because this is a must win pick!’ Lara told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo.
She told Bartiromo just two days after becoming co-chair that they are working to establish a network of volunteer pollsters in 2024 and lawyers amid 78 lawsuits in 23 states as the RNC tries to make voting easier and ‘harder to cheat’ . ‘
‘We must ensure that when people go to vote, they feel that their vote counts, that they are inspired to go and vote. We can never allow what happened in 2020 and the issues surrounding the election to ever happen again,” she said.
“So I want to tell you right now what’s already going on at the RNC,” Lara continued. ‘We have for the first time ever an ‘Election Integrity Division’ – that means huge resources dedicated solely to this cause.’
She made it clear that the main focus of the RNC now will be to attack those who believe 2020 was legitimate and to initiate lawsuits against those they believe are trying to ‘cheat’ or illegally interfere in the 2024 election.
“I want to say to anyone out there who is thinking about cheating in an election, we will go after you,” the new RNC chair warned. ‘You will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It’s not worth it.’
‘Every person in this country, Maria, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, should want free, fair and transparent elections.’