Republican infighting

Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers​

Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.
In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban. In a separate move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.

In rejecting the proposed ban, the executive committee's majority delivered a serious blow to a faction of members that has called for the party to confront its ties to groups that have recently employed or associated with outspoken white supremacists and extremists.

In October, The Texas Tribune published photos of Fuentes, an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler who has called for a “holy war” against Jews, entering and leaving the offices of Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm for far-right candidates and movements.

Pale Horse Strategies is owned by Jonathan Stickland, a former state representative and at the time the leader of a political action committee, Defend Texas Liberty, that two West Texas oil billionaires have used to fund right-wing movements, candidates and politicians in the state — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Texas GOP, was also seen entering the Pale Horse offices while Fuentes was inside for nearly 7 hours. He denied participating, however, saying he was visiting with someone else at the time and didn’t know Fuentes was there.

Defend Texas Liberty has not publicly commented on the scandal, save for a two-sentence statement condemning those who've tried to connect the PAC to Fuentes’ “incendiary” views. Nor has the group clarified Stickland's current role at Defend Texas Liberty, which quietly updated its website in October to reflect that he is no longer its president. Tim Dunn, one of the two West Texas oil billionaires who primarily fund Defend Texas Liberty, confirmed the meeting between Fuentes and Stickland and called it a “serious blunder,” according to a statement from Patrick.

In response to the scandal — as well as subsequent reporting from the Tribune that detailed other links between Defend Texas Liberty and white supremacists — nearly half of the Texas GOP’s executive committee had called for the party to cut ties with Defend Texas Liberty and groups it funds until Stickland was removed from any position of power, and a full explanation for the Fuentes meeting was given.


The proposed demands were significantly watered down ahead of the party’s quarterly meeting this weekend. Rather than calling for a break from Defend Texas Liberty, the faction proposed general language that would have barred associations with individuals or groups “known to espouse or tolerate antisemitism, pro-Nazi sympathies or Holocaust denial.”

But even that general statement was too much for the majority of the executive committee. In at-times tense debate on Saturday, members argued that words like “tolerate” or “antisemitism” were too vague or subjective. The ban, some argued, was akin to “Marxist” and “leftist” tactics, and would create guilt by association that could be problematic for the party, its leaders and candidates.

“It could put you on a slippery slope,” said committee member Dan Tully.

Rinaldi abstained from voting on the ban, but briefly argued that antisemitism is not a serious problem on the right before questioning what it would mean to "tolerate" those who espouse it. "I don't see any antisemitic, pro-Nazi or Holocaust denial movement on the right that has any significant traction whatsoever," he said.

Supporters of the ban disagreed. They noted that the language was already a compromise, didn’t specifically name any group or individual and would lend credence to resolutions in which the Texas GOP has generally condemned antisemitism and restated its support for Israel.

“To take it out sends a very disturbing message,” said Rolando Garcia, a Houston-based committee member who drafted the language. “We’re not specifying any individual or association. This is simply a statement of principle.”

Other committee members questioned how their colleagues could find words like “antisemitism” too vague, despite frequently lobbing it and other terms at their political opponents.

“I just don’t understand how people who routinely refer to others as leftists, liberals, communists, socialists and RINOs (‘Republicans in Name Only’) don’t have the discernment to define what a Nazi is,” committee member Morgan Cisneros Graham told the Tribune after the vote.

House Speaker Dade Phelan similarly condemned the vote Saturday evening, calling it “despicable.”

The Texas GOP executive committee “can’t even bring themselves to denounce neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers or cut ties with their top donor who brought them to the dance,” Phelan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “There is a moral, anti-Semitic rot festering within the fringes of BOTH parties that must be stopped.”

For two months, Phelan and his staff have routinely and publicly sparred with some in the party – namely Rinaldi, a longtime political foe – over how to address the Fuentes scandal and extremism more broadly. After the Tribune first reported on the Fuentes meeting, Phelan called on fellow Republicans to redirect money from Defend Texas Liberty to pro-Israel charities, a request that quickly drew the ire of Patrick and others who accused Phelan of politicizing antisemitism and demanded he resign.


After subsequent reporting by the Tribune on Defend Texas Liberty's ties to white supremacists and other extreme figures, Patrick said he was "appalled" and that antisemitism is "not welcome in our party." He then announced that the he had invested the $3 million he recently received from Defend Texas Liberty in Israeli bonds.

Patrick reiterated that stance late Saturday night, calling the executive committee's vote "totally unacceptable" and saying that he is "confident" the board will reconsider the ban at its February meeting.

"This language should have been adopted – because I know that is our position as a Party," Patrick wrote on X. "I, and the overwhelming majority of Republicans in Texas, do not tolerate antisemites, and those who deny the Holocaust, praise Hitler or the Nazi regime."

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Saturday’s vote is the latest sign of major disunity among the Texas GOP, which for years has dealt with simmering tensions between its far-right and more moderate, but still deeply conservative, wings. Defend Texas Liberty and its billionaire backers have been key players in that fight, funding primary challenges to incumbent Republicans who they deem insufficiently conservative while and bankrolling a sprawling network of institutions, media websites and political groups that they’ve used to incrementally pull Texas further right.


The party’s internecine conflict has exploded into all-out war since the impeachment and acquittal of Paxton, a crucial Defend Texas Liberty ally whose political life has been subsidized by the PAC’s billionaire funders.

After Paxton’s acquittal, Defend Texas Liberty vowed scorched-earth campaigns against those who supported the attorney general’s removal, and promised massive spending ahead of next year’s primary elections. (Before the Saturday vote, executive committee members separately approved a censure of outgoing Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction, over his lead role in the investigation and impeachment of Paxton.)

News of the Fuentes meeting has only complicated Defend Texas Liberty's retribution plans, as infighting intensifies and some Republicans question whether the group and its billionaire funders should have so much sway over the state party.

Meanwhile, Defend Texas Liberty's allies and beneficiaries have tried to downplay the scandals and discredit the Tribune's reporting, claiming the Fuentes meeting was a one-off mistake or attacking critics as RINOs, in bed with Democrats to suppress true conservatives.

Ahead of Saturday’s vote, Defend Texas Liberty-backed Reps. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, and Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, briefly spoke to the executive committee.

The day prior, Sen. Bob Hall — an Edgewood Republican who has received $50,000 from Defend Texas Liberty — was also at the Austin hotel where executive committee members were meeting, and in a speech condemned attempts to cut ties with the group based on what he called “hearsay,” “fuzzy photographs” and “narratives.”

“If you want to pass a resolution, I would make it positive,” Hall said to executive committee members on Friday. “We don’t need to do our enemy’s work for them.”


Hall reiterated that stance in an interview with the Tribune, calling the Fuentes meeting a “mistake” but claiming that there was “no evidence” that Stickland or Defend Texas Liberty are antisemitic.

“I've had meetings with transgenders, gays and lesbians,” Hall said. “Does that make me a transgender, gay or a lesbian?”

Asked if he was comparing gay people to white supremacists or Hitler admirers like Fuentes, Hall responded: “I’m talking about people who are political hot potatoes.”

 

MTG accuses GOP colleague of getting physically aggressive with her​

Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has accused fellow GOP Rep. Richard McCormick, also from Georgia, of getting physically aggressive with her, CNN reported Tuesday.

McCormick has denied the accusation, saying the interaction was meant as a “friendly gesture.”

Greene, in a private conversation with House Speaker Mike Johnson, said complained that McCormick grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her after the two disagreed over a censure resolution targeting Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, according to CNN.

"McCormick voted against Greene’s censure resolution and then introduced his own, more narrow version – which prompted Greene to say to reporters at the time that McCormick had his 'ego bruised.' She also publicly bashed other Republicans who voted against her resolution," CNN reported.

“I understand why there would be a lot of raw emotions following the censure vote, given that her censure was tabled and mine passed,” McCormick said in a statement given to the news network.


"My intention was to encourage Rep. Greene by making a friendly gesture

“I said to her, ‘at least we can have an honest discussion,’ to which she said she did not appreciate that. For that, I immediately apologized and have not spoken to her since.”
 

Ohh Look....they fell for another Election Denier Scam.​


Texas GOP sues lawyer for fooling candidates that they could prove rigged election

The Texas GOP is suing a lawyer they say fooled several former Republican candidates into believing they could prove voter suppression in Harris County, The Houston Chronicle reported.

The suit alleges that attorney Elizabeth Alvarez lied when she told 17 candidates that she had reliable data that proved “more than 40,000 voters were suppressed" in the 2022 general election.


According to the suit, the data, “Never existed and Defendants were not able to put forth even a scintilla of evidence."


“Ultimately, Defendants’ inability to substantively respond to the no evidence motions for summary judgment resulted in each of their remaining clients’ shameful defeat," the suit states.


The suit also alleged that she lied about her expertise on the issue and how fast it would be resolved. It seeks the $350,000 that the party paid Alvarez's firm and up to $1 million in damages.

"Alvarez is a prominent election attorney in GOP circles and was instrumental in helping Republican state lawmakers craft a controversial election reform law in 2021 that outlawed 24-hour and drive-thru voting and spurred Democrats to flee to Washington, D.C. to try and derail its passage," reported The Chronicle:


Read the full report over at The Houston Chronicle.
 
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'He is hated': House Republicans secretly consider expelling Matt Gaetz after booting George Santos​


WASHINGTON — Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., continues to draw the ire of his Republican colleagues in the House weeks after he led the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from the speakership, with some of his detractors privately floating expelling him from Congress.

Several Republican House members, many of whom are still angry at Gaetz for his antics that have impeded McCarthy and the majority of the conference from passing legislation, have begun to discuss Gaetz’ ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee in the wake of the expulsion of embattled former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y.

Leading up to Santos’ expulsion, multiple opponents of his removal publicly voiced their concerns about expelling a member who had not yet been convicted of a crime, which would overturn the precedent set by Congress in modern times.

One of those members was Gaetz himself, who openly defended Santos on the House floor.

“I rise not to defend George Santos whoever he is, but to defend the very precedent that my colleagues are willing to shatter,” Gaetz said last week.

One House Republican, who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about conversations between their colleagues, said GOP members were well aware of the future consequences of expelling Santos.

“There were a number of people who voted to expel Santos with the express intent of thinking through the precedent there on what happens next,” the member said. “There was a lot of forethought about the precedent and what would happen when a report on Gaetz comes out.”

Gaetz led the handful of Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy from the top job in the House earlier this year. After the lawmakers voted with Democrats to boot McCarthy, it led to weeks of infighting in the fractured Republican conference to select another leader. While lawmakers eventually rallied around now-Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., it used up weeks of time as lawmakers were trying to reach a temporary agreement to avoid a government shutdown.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...b4278df7ed80a90&ei=13&fullscreen=true#image=2
GOP lawmakers, the Republican said, are much more “excited” to expel Gaetz than Santos if the House Ethics Committee releases a report that is just as damning for Gaetz as it was for the Long Island Republican.

The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating various allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and misuse of campaign funds. The committee has reached out to at least one witness in its investigation in a sign the panel is turning to Gaetz after concluding its investigation into Santos, CNN reported. The Justice Department investigated Gaetz over sex trafficking allegations but decided not to pursue charges against him in February.

The House Ethics Committee, a bipartisan panel evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, has been criticized for being slow-moving and having limited options for punishment if it finds wrongdoing.

However, after Santos' expulsion following the committee's scathing report showing substantial evidence he broke federal law members had renewed hopes it could act swiftly and promptly to address congressional wrongdoing.

“One of the complaints that you often hear is that things often go to the ethics committee and it takes an extended period of time,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., chair of the committee, said last week. “I think that’s unfair for members of Congress and for members of this body.”

“It’s important that the ethics committee do their work, that they return their reports in a timely fashion,” so members could face the proper repercussions, Guest said.

Another House Republican who spoke to USA TODAY on the condition of anonymity to speak about the conference’s attitude towards Gaetz, said members are waiting for any ethics report on Gaetz to be released before publicly calling for his ouster.

“If there’s anything in there that’s bad, I can guarantee people will have their fangs out. He is hated in our conference,” the House Republican said of the GOP conference’s attitude towards Gaetz. “If he comes back as guilty in this ethics thing, I think he’s in trouble.”

In a recent closed-door conference meeting, the Republican recalled, Gaetz stood up to speak but was yelled at by members “to sit down and shut up,” reflecting the animosity GOP lawmakers still harbors against Gaetz.

But other Republicans are raising concerns their peers may be weaponizing the ethics committee against members who they may just have political disagreements with.

Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, a member of the House Ethics Committee who led the investigation into Santos, declined to comment about the investigation into Gaetz but told USA TODAY “every case is independent of one another,” cautioning against linking the probes into the two lawmakers.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who has openly criticized Gaetz over his politics, also warned against using the committee as a “political weapon or a bludgeon against somebody just because you don’t like them.”

Other GOP members are attempting to strike a middle ground between immediately pushing for Gaetz’ ouster to avoid predetermining judgment and leaving the door open to expelling Gaetz if the ethics committee comes out with damning findings.

Two other House Republicans said that lawmakers would take a serious and thorough look at the committee’s report on Gaetz when it is released and make their determination of what they deem a proper punishment then.

When asked by USA TODAY about his thoughts on members’ call to expel him over his ousting of McCarthy, Gaetz, who has taken the vitriol his colleagues have thrown at him in stride, smiled: “Which members?”


This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'He is hated': House Republicans secretly consider expelling Matt Gaetz after booting George Santos
 

GOP-led committee revives investigation into Matt Gaetz’ alleged sex trafficking and corruption​


On Thursday, CNN reported that the House Committee on Ethics is renewing its investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) after issuing a new request to interview a witness.

According to the network, the request to interview the unnamed witness went out the day before the House of Representatives voted for the expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-New York), stating that "The Chairman and Ranking Member have authorized staff to conduct an interview" with the witness. This is the first activity out of the committee regarding Gaetz since July, when it interviewed a witness in Florida about "alleged lobbying violations."

In response to CNN asking him about the probe, Gaetz said "oh please" and "I wish them luck."


The ethics committee initially launched its investigation into Gaetz in 2021, when Democrats were in control. CNN reported that the initial probe looked into allegations that Gaetz "violated sex trafficking laws, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, used illicit drugs, converted campaign funds to personal use and accepted a bribe, among other claims."

While a Department of Justice investigation into Gaetz for alleged sex trafficking of a minor concluded with no charges filed against the Florida congressman, a source close to the ethics committee confided to CNN that the DOJ's decision to not file criminal charges "does not impact what the committee will and won’t investigate." The network reported that the committee has not yet interviewed key witnesses in the DOJ probe, including his close associate Joel Greenberg, who in 2021 was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to underage sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking, identity theft, producing a fake ID card and conspiring to defraud the United States government.


Gaetz has carved out a reputation in the House of Representatives as a bomb thrower among the GOP, as the instigator of the motion to vacate former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California). Ultimately, Gaetz and seven other Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to oust McCarthy from the speakership following his efforts to work with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

On Wednesday, McCarthy announced he would not be retiring from Congress at the end of 2023. His exit triggers a special election in his Southern California district, potentially endangering Republicans' ability to hold their slim majority in the next Congress.
 
Polds4OSU said:

Video of Kevin McCarthy praising Democrats goes viral: “They look like America”​

MSN

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schitts creek lol GIF by CBC
 

Michigan GOP has 2 options. Remove the current Trump loving chair or go bankrupt.​



Michigan GOP leaders say they have the votes to oust pro-Trump MAGA chair​

former Michigan Republican District chair, and one-time staunch supporter of Kristina Karamo, says there are enough votes to oust her as state GOP chair.

“We’ve got the votes. She’s gone,” Warren Carpenter told the Michigan Advance on Monday.

Carpenter, who resigned in September as chairman of the 9th Congressional District’s Republican committee, sponsored the research in a 140-page report titled, “The Failed Leadership of the Karamo Administration,” which was released Sunday night.


It is being used by a group of dissident Republicans within the party to try and oust Karamo as chair at a special meeting set for Dec. 27. On Monday, Oakland County Republican Party Chair Vance Patrick added his name to that list.

In the report, Carpenter alleges that Karamo’s leadership “has put the Party at an imminent risk of defaulting on its line of credit and potentially needing to declare bankruptcy,” while also putting “the Party and its partners in a position of facing significant civil and criminal consequences for failing to follow state and federal law.”

A request for comment was sent to Karamo, but has yet to be returned.

The report, which includes copies of bank records and screenshots purporting to be of the state party’s accounts, claims that since Karamo assumed control of the party in February, it “is now in a significant negative financial operating position” and has amassed nearly $620,000 in debt.

“People should get prison sentences for the stuff they’ve done because other people in our country are getting prison sentences for the exact same things,” Carpenter told the Advance. “If we’re the party of law and order, I’m not going to have people telling me, ‘We’re the party of law and order unless there’s a sacred cow.’ That’s not what I wanted to be involved in. I did this for truth and transparency, and when I say this, I mean getting back involved in the party to try to get us over the finish line for some wins in 2024.”

Of particular concern to Carpenter are alleged violations of federal contribution limits as seen in the party’s November profit-and-loss statement which showed that major donors gave $263,203 that month.

“The only other sources of income identified in the November 30 profit-and-loss statement are $20,000 for the state convention and $19,127.60 in small contributions,” stated the report. “Accordingly, the vast majority of November contributions into the federal account came from one or more major donors. Under applicable federal campaign finance laws, a person is limited to contributing a total of $10,000 to a state party’s federal committee account.”


Carpenter contends that most of the November contributions to the party’s federal account came from a single unidentified donor, thus federal contribution limits were violated.

He also says questionable spending, such as nearly $75,000 for undisclosed services paid to a business associated with Ottawa Impact leader Joe Moss was not reported on any of the party’s campaign-finance reports, which he called “a significant compliance issue.” Moss, who is also chair of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, nominated Karamo for chair at the February convention.

One real consequence of these violations, according to Carpenter, is the chance the party is taking of losing what is known as “safe harbor” status within campaign finance law. According to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), political committees that have internal safeguards in place to prevent the misappropriation of funds will be given “safe harbor” and not be assessed civil penalties for filing incorrect reports.


However, Carpenter believes once the FEC investigates the alleged violations, which he says is imminent, it will become clear they won’t meet that standard.

“Then every mistake they made is going to be seen by the FEC as adversarial,” he said. “That’s a totally different shift, and once you lose Safe Harbor in your FEC account, you don’t get to keep it for your state account. You don’t get to keep it for the administrative account or any of those, because all those operate under the same standards of Safe Harbor. So if you lose it for one position, you lose it for the entire body.”

Carpenter also notes that the party’s bylaws clearly state that the budget committee must have a member from all 13 districts who are supposed to control the party’s spending, which is not being done and why the violations are being allowed to occur.

“They’re operating a completely separate financial organization outside of the party with these individuals who are enriching their friends,” he said.


Additionally, the party accepted a $110,000 loan from the Lynnette R Wilson Trust to pay the speaking fee for actor Jim Caviezel to speak at the Mackinac Leadership Conference in September.

“The Karamo administration has driven the Party into an unsustainable financial operating Position,” concludes the report.“The Party cannot continue to operate any longer at this rate. Ms. Karamo’s financial plan has been a complete failure. And she has no new plan to bring the Party back. If Ms. Karamo is allowed to continue following her failed plan, the Party will endure additional financial losses and the creation of more debt — and ultimately the effective end of the Party. What seemed impossible at the beginning of 2023 has now become a reality in only nine months.”

Karamo’s leadership of the party has been plagued by public missteps and other reports of financial shortfalls and infighting. There was even actual fighting reported in July at a state committee meeting in Clare.

Carpenter’s report details more than $500,000 that the Michigan GOP owes to Comerica Bank for a line of credit, noting that the party made no payments on the debt’s principal and only “sporadic” interest-only payments in May, June, August, and September totaling $16,466. Meanwhile, the principal balance on the line of credit over that same period grew by an additional $49,400.

Karamo, meanwhile, has proposed eliminating some of the debt by selling off the party’s unused headquarters building in Lansing, despite the fact that it is not actually owned by the party, but instead by a trust governed by former party leaders and major donors.

On Friday, the state party filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Republican Party Trust and Comerica Bank saying the building properly belongs to the party.

Carpenter’s report says the legal action means the party will likely face legal action by Comerica Bank to collect on the debt:

“This lawsuit will likely include a judgement (sic) for the sheriff to seize all the Party’s assets for sale at auction and also a garnishment of the Party’s bank accounts and amounts that third parties owe the Party. Under this scenario, the Party will have little choice but to declare bankruptcy.”

As to who he thinks will take the reins of the party if they are successful in removing Karamo, Carpenter wouldn’t speculate on anyone in particular, only saying it had to be someone better than what they have now.

“I will support anybody who supports the principles that I first signed up for, which are law and order, transparency and hard work,” he told the Advance. “If any of these individuals that come forward want to sign up to that and prove that, then so be it. And if they get in and they don’t do it, then I’ll do the same thing I did with the prior administration, expose what the malfeasance is, and I’ll push to get them out. We want competent leadership.”
 

Republican Blames The Trump-Era $2.2 Trillion CARES Act For Inflation: ‘I Was Against It… And Here We Are’​


Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) offered a surprising concession during a discussion with Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) during a debate on the achievements of the current GOP-led House of Representatives.

Neguse charged the current Congress of passing far fewer bills than the previous one, a metric Massie discarded as meaningless.

Massie argued “we shouldn’t confuse activity with progress” while claiming that Neguse was including post office naming and other frivolous acts of Congress in his statistic to show the last Congress worked harder.

Massie continued to debate Neguse on the point and pivoted to say, “Well, included in this statistic is the CARES Act, which has been you know, that was the $2 trillion that Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Nancy Pelosi.”

“And almost your entire conference voted for. Yes,” Neguse shot back, noting it was a bipartisan measure championed by the Trump White House to deal with Covid-19.

“Yes. And I was against it because I said it would cause inflation. And yeah, I said it would cause inflation and shortages and a lot of long-term mal-effects to the economy. And here we are,” Massie concluded, arguing that the inflation of the last three years can be attributed to the massive stimulus passed by the last Congress and signed into law by then-President Trump.
 

wow they blasted the RNC on their way out​

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5 Members of RNC youth committee resign over dissatisfaction with efforts to attract young voters​


EXCLUSIVE: Five members of the Republican National Committee’s youth advisory council have resigned amid dissatisfaction with GOP’s efforts—or lack thereof—to draw in young voters ahead of the 2024 election, Fox News Digital has learned.

The RNC created the council, co-chaired by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., in a commitment to youth voter outreach. The council is made up of millennials and Gen Z individuals.

But five members are resigning from the 16-member board due to, what they call, a "lack of vision" from the party.

"When first approached about the committee that your team was forming, we were honored to join and excited about what we believed was a serious undertaking by the RNC to win the hearts and minds of young voters across the country," the five members who are resigning wrote in a letter to RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.

"Our decision to withdraw from the committee is one that has not been made lightly and is the result of a lack of organization, lack of tangible goals and benchmarks, and general lack of vision for the Advisory Council," they wrote.


The members— all "elected officials" from Iowa, West Virginia, Missouri, Florida and Texas—said that upon joining, it was their "understanding that our proven abilities to fundraise, mobilize voters, and win elections would be utilized to gain a larger share of the youth vote."


The members said that during their "short tenure" on the board, they have "not been updated on any efforts employed by the RNC—if any exist at all—to specifically reach young voters, have not been utilized as elected representatives of our state, have not been assigned or delegated any tasks, and have not even received proper invitations to council meetings."

The members said the "lack of organization and communication from the RNC" makes them feel that the council is "nothing more than another failed fundraising ploy by the RNC."

"My colleagues and I refuse to be used as shiny objects in the solicitation of funds by the RNC when there is no work being done to advance the mission of the Advisory Council," they wrote.

The members stressed that the RNC needs to "win over and mobilize young voters across this country" in order to "course-correct and restore our great country to the force it once was."

"After seeing the way the Youth Advisory Council has been run since its formation, we are sending this letter to express the lack of confidence we have in the RNC’s ability to win over and mobilize young voters," they wrote.

They added: "It is our hope that you will take the concerns expressed in this letter and our departure from the Youth Advisory Council as a call to reform and reestablish this council as one that is actionable and effective and as an invitation to join us in the critical work of reaching young voters in tangible, measurable ways before election day in November 2024."

But members of the council who are staying on are completely at odds with their resigning colleagues, and claim they "weren't contributing" while they served.

A person familiar with the RNC's Youth Advisory Council told Fox News Digital that all five members of the council who are resigning were "repeatedly asked to help with both the social media and messaging projects, each individual either refused to participate or were assigned to a project and did not return multiple requests for input."


"Our Youth Advisory Council has been working tirelessly to engage with the grassroots, bring young voters to our debates, get them committed to vote early through the RNC’s Bank Your Vote program, and working on guides for our Republican candidates on how to reach young voters and the pressing issues that will motivate us to vote next year," RNC Youth Advisory Council Co-Chair Brilyn Hollyhand told Fox News Digital. "We are excited for the work ahead of the council in 2024 and won’t be distracted by a select few who weren’t contributing in the first place and no longer want to be a part of it."

The letter is signed by members Joe Mitchell from Iowa; Caleb Hanna of West Virginia; Mazzie Boyd of Missouri; Carolina Amnesty of Florida; and Caroline Harris of Texas.

Harris told Fox News Digital that the advisory committee was "always just a PR stunt the RNC could use to mislead donors."


"After meeting once or twice back in the summer, there has not been one follow-up meeting, not one phone call, nor has the committee been invited to participate or advise on anything else within the RNC," Harris said.

"The RNC understands the young voters as much as they understand the Trump movement," Boyd told Fox News Digital. "They are still stuck in the Bush Era and haven't been able to get out."

And Hanna told Fox News Digital that the advisory council is "based on a lie."

"A lie that the RNC actually wants to reach young people or even wants to learn how," he said. "It’s very revealing and disappointing to see the RNC’s incompetence up close and personal."


Council co-Chair CJ Pearson said: "Resigning from a job you didn’t show up for isn’t news. It’s a distraction from the important work we do, and will continue to do, as we march towards 2024."

Council member Riley Gaines also praised the work of the RNC, saying that "the Republican Party has never been more committed to bringing more young voices into the Party than it is this cycle."

An RNC official told Fox News Digital that the council is currently working on rolling out a "best practices guide for social media and messaging guidance on how to talk about young voters’ most pressing issues."

The official also said the council has been involved in promoting the RNC's "Bank Your Vote" effort, which is the party's initiative to get voters to commit to voting early. The official said council members have provided their input to the RNC on how best to reach young voters in that effort.

"Some groups that claim to turn out young voters, like Turning Point, have failed cycle after cycle," RNC spokesperson Keith Schipper told Fox News Digital. "That’s why the RNC has stepped up and created the Youth Advisory Council to fine-tune effective youth get-out-the-vote and messaging strategies to grow our Party."
 

Colorado GOP threatens criminal complaints against their 'feckless' former leader​

The chairman of the Colorado Republican Party on Wednesday accused previous party leadership of draining most of the money in the organization’s accounts and threatened to pursue criminal complaints against individual former party officers.

Former state Rep. Dave Williams, who succeeded Kristi Burton Brown as state GOP chair in March, said in an email to supporters that a party committee tasked with investigating past financial practices of the party “uncovered serious incidents of possible malfeasance and misappropriation of Party resources.”


Previous leadership had indicated that $100,000 remained in party accounts at the time of the officer transition, but the new leaders found that only $8,000 was left, Williams said. The previous leaders also “left us in debt to our landlord to the tune of $9,000 in unpaid back rent and several tens of thousands of dollars in questionable legal bills we are still untangling,” Williams said.

The party’s executive committee authorized Williams “to pursue civil and potential criminal complaints” against previous leaders, Williams added.

Williams did not provide details that would corroborate his allegations except to say that party treasurer Tom Bjorklund in August “disclosed … the challenging financial situation” that previous leaders had created.

Bjorklund was present at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. He was associated with U.S. Election Integrity Plan, a Colorado conspiracist group.

Randy Corporon, an attorney and conservative radio talk show host, sent Burton Brown a letter on behalf of the party Tuesday demanding that she preserve material that could constitute evidence, according to a copy of the letter that Williams shared. Corporon in the letter cites allegations that previous GOP leaders misappropriated party resources and engaged in “potential unjust enrichment.”

Corporon’s letter lacked information about the basis of the allegations.

In response to a text seeking comment, Burton Brown said, “All records are in Dave Williams’ possession and have been since he took over as chair. I can’t speak to what he’s done with them over the last 9 months.”

Burton Brown, an attorney and longtime conservative Colorado activist, was chair of the state Republican party for one term starting in 2021 and declined to seek reelection. She presided over a troubled organization that failed to gain influence in statewide offices and the Legislature and splintered between an election-denying MAGA faction and a more traditionally conservative wing.

In his campaign for party chair, Williams, an outspoken election denier, blasted Burton Brown’s leadership, accusing her of deference to a misguided consultant class.

“Our party doesn’t have a brand problem,” he said at the time of his election as chairman, according to The Colorado Sun. “Our party has a problem with feckless leaders who are ashamed of you and ashamed of our conservative values.”

Corporon has also persistently denied President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and he regularly advances conspiracy theories on his KNUS radio show.

“Randy believes the 2020 election was stolen and those of us fighting to prove it will soon be news, not conspiracy,” says the description of one of his broadcasts from May.

Burton Brown is now a senior policy analyst at Advance Colorado Institute.
 
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