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The National Republican Congressional Committee sent an antagonistic message to donors this month.
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The group accused those who had not yet contributed of being a “traitor” and abandoning Trump.
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Some Trump advisers told The Washington Post they were livid with the framing of the message.
A top GOP committee dedicated to electing Republicans to the House of Representatives is taking an adversarial approach to some of its recent fundraising attempts.
The National Republican Congressional Committee sent a fundraising message this month threatening supporters who had not yet donated, calling them a “traitor,” The Washington Post reported.
“You abandoned Trump,” a text version of the message said. “We were told you were a tried & true, lifelong patriot.”
“But when Trump said he’d run for President if we took back the House from Nancy Pelosi…You did nothing. Was Trump wrong about you?” the statement asked.
The message continued, offering recipients a “final chance” to prove their loyalty, else they’d be “branded a deserter.” The statement said donors had “only 17 minutes” to respond.
According to The Post, some Trump advisers were furious with the framing of the email, calling it off-putting and worrying that it could alienate supporters as Trump continues to hint at a 2024 presidential run.
“The tone was totally inappropriate,” one anonymous advisor told the outlet about the committee’s message.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The former president, though ousted from office, still holds sway over the Republican party, and GOP strategists eager to regain control of Washington are using Trump’s sphere of power and name recognition to target his dedicated base in hopes of prompting Republican voter turnout large enough to return Congress to the GOP in 2022.
The messaging comes even as Trump publicly issues a threat to GOP lawmakers, telling them to back his ongoing lies about unfounded election fraud or else Republicans will refuse to vote in 2022 and 2024. On Thursday, Trump published a statement to his political action committee website, Save America, conveying the threat.
“If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ’22 or ’24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do,” the statement said.
Official audits and election experts have concluded there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and the Department of Homeland Security declared the election the “most secure in American history.”
One elections expert told Insider that the former president’s ultimatum is “mostly a power play,” and Trump, in addition to several other senior Republican leaders, has expressed confidence that the party will be able to retake Congress come 2022.
Read the original article on Business Insider
