{"id":1012,"date":"2024-02-14T00:04:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T00:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/14\/can-this-man-run-donald-trumps-republican-party\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T00:04:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T00:04:13","slug":"can-this-man-run-donald-trumps-republican-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/14\/can-this-man-run-donald-trumps-republican-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Can this man run Donald Trump\u2019s Republican Party?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A few months after Donald Trump\u2019s defeat in the 2020 election, Michael Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, alerted GOP faithful to what he portrayed as a two-decade quest by Democrats to cheat their way to power, beginning with the contested 2000 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew, if we were not there, they were going to steal it,\u201d Whatley told an audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference, recalling how he and scores of other lawyers mobilized to secure George W. Bush\u2019s victory in Florida.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward 20 years, Whatley warned in February 2021, and there were new opportunities for fraud. \u201cNow it\u2019s all electronic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Scarcely more than two years later, Whatley won reelection as state party chair using electronic voting software \u2014 causing an outcry, claims of fraud and, ultimately, a lawsuit against the state party. The lawsuit was dismissed. But it shows how distrust in the voting process, spread by GOP elites to satisfy Trump, has come back to bite them, making their own party increasingly ungovernable.<\/p>\n

The friendly fire in North Carolina is a preview of what may await Whatley if he takes over the Republican National Committee from Ronna McDaniel, the national party\u2019s current chair, who is expected to step down after this month\u2019s South Carolina primary. Trump said in a statement on Monday that he favors Whatley for chair and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, for co-chair, as he seeks to exert control over the party before the November election. Trump\u2019s endorsement all but guarantees their rise, though technically the committee\u2019s 168 members must decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael has been with me from the beginning, has done a great job in his home state of North Carolina, and is committed to election integrity, which we must have to keep fraud out of our election so it can\u2019t be stolen,\u201d the former president said.<\/p>\n

Trump is drawn to Whatley, advisers say, because the former president twice won North Carolina and sees the state chairman as a loyal steward who has backed him since his first campaign in 2016. Trump expects compliance \u2014 whether on party personnel or his legal bills. The party helped defray his expenses from investigations into his businesses before he announced his 2024 campaign, and those payments could resume under new leadership.<\/p>\n

When it comes to interacting with Trump\u2019s team, Whatley \u201cis not going to say no,\u201d said a senior Republican who knows Whatley well and spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. Sharing duties with a Trump family member would surely redouble the pressure.<\/p>\n

Whatley, currently the national party\u2019s general counsel along with his state-level role, did not respond to questions. But in an interview last year, he defended McDaniel as her leadership came under criticism and presented himself as a happy warrior. The party needed to raise more money, he said, but she deserved support. The two have been close for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no magic formula,\u201d he said then. \u201cOur whole job is getting people to vote and protecting the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s false claims of voter fraud have brought those two aims into conflict. Whatley has not championed Trump\u2019s claims to the degree demanded by party activists, nor has he repudiated them, instead allowing them to fester. In the process, he has opened himself to criticism on all fronts.<\/p>\n

A Republican former member of North Carolina\u2019s congressional delegation, assessing Whatley\u2019s likely promotion within Trump\u2019s GOP, said, \u201cWho in their right mind would go do something like this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatley hails from Watauga County, in a hilly region known as North Carolina\u2019s High Country. He first became involved in politics as a high school sophomore, volunteering on the 1984 reelection campaign of then-Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican who crusaded against abortion, civil and gay rights, and foreign aid.<\/p>\n

In 2000, as a member of the Bush campaign\u2019s legal team, Whatley learned the ways of political combat, he later said. \u201cIt was really the first time that Republicans got down into the trench and fought,\u201d he said from the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2021.<\/p>\n

The experience also familiarized him with figures who remain central in GOP politics. Pointing at Matt Schlapp, CPAC\u2019s embattled chairman, Whatley said, \u201cOne of the greatest things about that 2000 recount was getting a chance to meet this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the U.S. Supreme Court ended Florida\u2019s recount, handing the election to Bush, Whatley served in the Department of Energy and as chief of staff to then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a nonconfrontational, almost nonexistent life on Capitol Hill,\u201d said the former member of North Carolina\u2019s congressional delegation. \u201cNo one remembers anything he did on the Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2005, he had gone into lobbying, according to federal filings. He mainly represented energy companies, through larger lobbying shops and his own firm, The Patriot Group. He also worked the corridors of power for other interests, such as aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin, according to lobbying disclosures.<\/p>\n

Whatley returned to North Carolina in 2015, property records show, just as Trump was arriving on the political scene. Unlike Republicans who made peace with Trump only after he had cleared the field, Whatley was an early booster.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was already with Trump long before it was locked up,\u201d said Russell Peck, a longtime GOP operative in the state.<\/p>\n

Whatley served as an informal adviser to Trump\u2019s campaign in North Carolina and became friendly with Susie Wiles, who now runs Trump\u2019s political operation. He was active in outreach strategy, helping to devise the candidate\u2019s appearances in the state and deploy surrogates to press Trump\u2019s case in other venues. He also worked on the campaign\u2019s energy platform, according to a Trump adviser.<\/p>\n

When Trump won, Whatley had a wide-ranging role in the presidential transition, notably shepherding the confirmation of former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue as secretary of the Agriculture Department.<\/p>\n

Back in North Carolina, the state GOP soon found itself mired in controversy. In early 2019, state election officials ordered a new contest in the 9th Congressional District, after evidence emerged that a ballot-tampering scheme had benefited Republican Mark Harris.<\/p>\n

Weeks later, the state party chairman, Robert \u201cRobin\u201d Hayes, was indicted on federal bribery charges. He ultimately pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal agents (and was later pardoned by Trump).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Whatley stepped in. \u201cWe need a reset in Raleigh,\u201d he said in a video announcing his campaign for state party chair. Despite Whatley\u2019s years of support for Trump, the then-president didn\u2019t back his bid.<\/p>\n

Once he took the reins, Whatley focused especially on state legislative and judicial races, according to party officials and donors. The efforts paid off. Republicans flipped the state Supreme Court in 2022 and secured supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature by the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proof is in the pudding,\u201d said Dallas Woodhouse, a former executive director of the state party. \u201cHe\u2019s been successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crucially, Whatley endeared himself to Trump in 2020 by delivering the state for him, even as Democrats held the governor\u2019s office. An adviser said Trump was pleased by the clarity of North Carolina\u2019s results and credited Whatley for preventing fraud \u2014 which Republicans blamed, contrary to numerous court decisions, for defeats in other states.<\/p>\n

As election fraud became a GOP bugbear, Whatley boasted of his efforts in North Carolina, telling the CPAC audience that he had devoted three-quarters of the state party\u2019s budget to legal expenses and amassed an army of 500 lawyers to prevent Democratic skulduggery.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s boasted privately to Trump as well, a person familiar with their interactions said.<\/p>\n

In the weeks after the election, even as North Carolina\u2019s results went unquestioned, Whatley echoed the president\u2019s unfounded claims of fraud elsewhere. He told a conservative local talk radio host: \u201cWe do know that there was massive fraud that took place. We know that it took place in places like Milwaukee and Detroit and Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the protest encouraged by Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, devolved into a deadly riot, Whatley denounced the violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actions of the violent protestors who stormed and vandalized the U.S. Capitol, planted bombs and assaulted Capitol Police Officers are completely unjustified and unacceptable,\u201d he wrote on Facebook. \u201cThere is no rationale to excuse this assault on the foundations of our Democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He struck the same tone on Twitter but later deleted the post.<\/p>\n

The language reflects a balance Whatley was trying to strike, said Woodhouse, the former state party executive director. \u201cI think Whatley found a middle ground,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t recall him ever saying the election was stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Art Pope, an influential North Carolina donor backing former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley in her long-shot bid to wrest the nomination from Trump, said Whatley\u2019s position has been misconstrued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen Michael Whatley referred to as \u2018election denier,\u2019 a term like \u2018climate denier\u2019 or \u2018Holocaust denier,\u2019\u201d Pope, who has worked with Whatley since he became state party chairman, said in an interview. \u201cI\u2019ve never heard Michael Whatley allege any of the further-out conspiracy theories with regard to the 2020 election.\u201d<\/p>\n

To some in the party\u2019s base, that very restraint is a problem. In replies to Whatley\u2019s Facebook post \u2014 which remains on his page \u2014 users falsely blamed left-wing activists for the violence at the Capitol and insisted that the election was stolen. \u201cThis election was illegitimate,\u201d one wrote, going on to question his rejection of violence: \u201cThere will be an illegitimate and illegally elected President living in the White House in 9 days and you don\u2019t think there is ever a time for the use of violence?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatley found other ways of proving his loyalty to Trump. In February 2021, he presided over a state party censure of then-Sen. Richard Burr after the Republican, who had already announced his decision to retire, voted to find Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection at the president\u2019s second impeachment trial.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he allowed Trump to use the state party\u2019s annual convention in Greensboro to endorse then-Rep. Ted Budd in a contested Senate primary race, breaking with long-standing neutrality rules. Whatley later told others that he was taken aback when Trump issued an endorsement from the convention stage, according to people who spoke with him.<\/p>\n

The endorsement bolstered Budd\u2019s candidacy and deflated the campaigns of then-Rep. Mark Walker and former governor Pat McCory, both also running for Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been advised early on by people I respect to never trust him, and it turns out they were right,\u201d McCrory said of Whatley, declining to elaborate.<\/p>\n

Whatley threw his hat in the ring for Republican National Committee co-chair early last year, and he picked up Trump\u2019s endorsement but later withdrew. Instead, he was made RNC general counsel.<\/p>\n

In June, he was reelected as state party chairman at the annual convention in Greensboro, but a cloud of suspicion hung over the results. That\u2019s because voting in the chair\u2019s race occurred via electronic software, according to court filings.<\/p>\n

Three delegates to the convention sued, arguing that the party \u201cconducted the vote over the Internet and failed to use paper ballots making an audit impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A judge dismissed the complaint, and the plaintiffs dropped their appeal early this year. But Whatley\u2019s critics say the dispute shows how he has lost credibility with the party\u2019s most engaged activists, for whom election integrity is a litmus test.<\/p>\n

Michele Woodhouse, a regional GOP chair in the western part of the state, added, \u201cThe grass roots in North Carolina has completely walked away from the GOP and Michael Whatley\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatley\u2019s evolution illustrates the arc of the Republican Party under Trump, said Robert Orr, a former Republican justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, who has since left the party. But the criticism Whatley faces from within his own ranks, Orr added, shows how few rewards such adaptations ultimately bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on his political involvement prior to 2016, I wouldn\u2019t have predicted he was some sort of MAGA supporter,\u201d Orr said. \u201cBut look at the Republican Party: How many people holding elected or party office would you have expected to be some slavish supporter of Donald Trump?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on The Washington Post<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months after Donald Trump\u2019s defeat in the 2020 election, Michael Whatley, the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, alerted GOP faithful to what he portrayed as a two-decade quest by Democrats to cheat their way to power, beginning with the contested 2000 election. \u201cWe knew, if we were not there, they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}