Donald Trump dancing with joy at election time

Cracks are starting to show at the top of the Republican Party. The Republican National Committee last week censured Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, two of Donald Trump’s chief critics in the House, for taking part in the congressional investigation of last year’s attack on the Capitol and aiding the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse”. On February 8th Mitch McConnell, the party’s Senate leader, hit back, calling the events of January 6th 2021 a “violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next”.

A few days earlier Mike Pence took a similarly firm stance against his ex-boss’s claims of election-rigging. “I heard this week that President Trump said I had a right to overturn the election,” Mr Pence said. “President Trump is wrong…And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”

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