Capitol Hill GOP unease lingers about Trump’s march to nomination

By Manu Raju, Melanie Zanona, Sam Fossum and Ted Barrett, CNN

A growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are lining up behind former President Donald Trump as he marches toward the GOP presidential nomination.

But some corners of the party – including Senate leaders, vulnerable Republicans and rank-and-file members – are still uneasy about the prospect of Trump being at the top of the ticket, and privately hoping he somehow stumbles between now and the nominating convention.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said, “I’ve always been worried” about Trump’s viability as a general election candidate.

“General elections are won in the middle of the electorate,” Thune told CNN. “All that has repercussions for Senate races, too. If we want to get the majority, we need a strong showing at the top of the ticket that translates into some down-ballot success.”

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who has wanted to move the party past Trump, would not comment Tuesday when asked if he is resigned to the fact that Trump will likely be their nominee.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas – who, like Thune, is seen as a potential successor to McConnell one day – said the race is not over yet.

“If the primaries were all held today, Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee. But it’s not over yet,” he told CNN. “We’ll see how it all unfolds.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican and member of the GOP leadership team, would not say whether she would endorse Trump after he won the Iowa caucuses Monday night by a wide margin.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that President Joe Biden does not occupy the White House,” she told CNN on Tuesday.

When asked about Trump’s viability given the criminal charges against him, she said: “You know he did pretty darn well in Iowa. And I think you might see that continue. So, here we go. Get ready.”

And Rep. David Valadao of California, who represents a key swing district and voted to impeach Trump for inciting the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill attack, dodged questions about Trump’s Iowa victory, saying he was watching football on Monday night.

“Oh, I’m not getting involved in anything presidential,” Valadao told CNN.

When asked if thought Trump’s nomination was a foregone conclusion, Valadao said: “I don’t think anything is inevitable.”

While Trump has steadily secured support from across the party – and more endorsements are expected in the coming days – it’s clear some in the GOP are struggling to come to grips with Trump’s dominance in the primary, with lingering fears that he could hinder their ability to recapture the Senate majority. And Trump’s landslide victory in Iowa on Monday night has done little to ease their anxiety over coronating a twice-impeached former president who is facing dozens of charges in multiple states.

Those reservations, however, are far more pronounced in the Senate than the House, where Trump has locked up endorsements from every single member of Republican leadership and dozens of other rank-and-file members.

After Trump was projected to win the Iowa caucuses, Speaker Mike Johnson put out a statement celebrating the win, saying: “His decisive and historic victory tonight should move our Party closer to uniting so we can achieve the ultimate victory in November.”

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, one of Trump’s most loyal allies on the Hill, went even further, calling on Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to drop out of the presidential race.

“I am calling on every other candidate – all of whom have no chance to win – to drop out so we can unify and immediately rally behind President Trump so that we can focus 100% of our resources on defeating Joe Biden to Save America,” Stefanik said in a statement.

But not everyone in the GOP is ready to unify behind Trump just yet, even as the former president and his allies have lobbied members hard to back him and made clear they’re tracking endorsements closely.

Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who in the past has opposed Trump’s candidacy and sharply criticized Trump for not calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, would not say if he was comfortable with the former president as the GOP’s nominee.

“I’ve made statements in the past. I’ll be making more in the future, but I’m focused on tax deals,” he told CNN.

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia also demurred when asked if she was prepared to endorse, telling CNN: “I’ve said I’m going to wait on that. But we’ll have to see what happens. We got New Hampshire coming up … South Carolina.”

When asked if she was comfortable with Trump’s dominant position in the primary, Capito said: “He certainly did well last night. We have New Hampshire right now, so we’ll see.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, swatted down the idea that Trump’s nomination was inevitable.

“I always smile when we say a week is an eternity in politics,” Cassidy said. “And what is it between now and November?”

While Cornyn wouldn’t say if he would endorse Trump, he did indicate that his opinion may be changing on Trump’s weakness as a general election candidate.

“Our system says the voters get to make that choice, not anybody else. And I respect their choice,” he said.

Cornyn added: “I certainly am not going to do anything to help President Biden. I think his administration has been disastrous. So, whatever it takes to stop a second Biden term, you can sign me up for.”

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