With the leadership at the top of the Republican National Committee in flux and Donald Trump looking to install his hand-picked candidates, Democratic strategist James Carville said he doesn’t trust money donated to the RNC in the near future will serve its intended purpose, saying donors are “begging to be stolen from.”
“These people want to be stolen from,” Carville told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki. “The people that give Trump money or the RNC money are begging to be stolen from, and Trump is going to accommodate them. They’re very blunt and very upfront about what they’re doing.”
Current RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel is resigning effective March 8 “to allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing.”
Increasingly, it seems that that nominee will be former President Donald Trump, and he’s already made clear who he wants heading up the RNC: a duo of co-chairs consisting of North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law.
Lara Trump has already stated that, if she’s made co-chair, “every single penny” donated to the RNC would be put towards “the No. 1 and the only job of the RNC — that is electing Donald J. Trump as President of the United States and saving this country.”
While in South Carolina campaigning for Donald Trump, Lara said she believes Republican donors would want their money to help pay for Donald’s legal fees stemming from fighting multiple criminal indictments.
“They feel like it’s an attack not just on Donald Trump but on this country,” she said. “So yeah I think that is a big interest to people, absolutely.”
During his MSNBC appearance, Carville said that if RNC donors are fine with paying for Trump’s legal battles rather than electing Republican candidates across the ballot, they certainly have that right.
“And so, if people want to give Trump money, then go ahead and give it to him,” he said, adding that many Republicans he’s acquainted with from his days in D.C. believe Trump is “siphoning off” money from other Republican candidates, which could lead to more Democrats winning races.
“You know something? They’re right,” he said. “Please put Lara Trump over that. Please steal every dollar you can get.”
He said he’d advise the Democratic National Committee to “press, press, now” in terms of funding races in battleground states like Arizona and Michigan, where he believes the GOP is “underfunded” due to the money being funneled to fighting Trump’s legal battles.