LANSING — As has been extensively reported, the outcome of the 2020 election remains the sole focus of Michigan Republicans well into the 2022 cycle. From county clerks facing an “ongoing torrent of false claims and suspicions about voting procedures,” to the majority of the GOP gubernatorial primary field staking their candidacies on their distrust of democratic systems, the party’s descent into extremism shows no signs of stopping.
Even if they wanted to focus on the future, Trump won’t let them. Last night, the former president released a statement calling Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and Sen. Ed McBroom “incompetent RINO[s]” for “standing in the way of a full Forensic Audit in Michigan.”
As he had done previously in June after the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee report found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 general election, Trump saved his harshest words for McBroom, referring to him as “a Democrat that could otherwise not get elected in Northern Michigan.”
Michigan Republicans were more than happy to back Trump up. Within hours of Trump’s statement, the Macomb County GOP voted unanimously to censure McBroom and two other Senate Republicans that contributed to the report. The statewide MIGOP has so far resisted calls to participate in the “RINO hunt,” but today’s action coming from the third-largest county in Michigan emphasizes the grassroots’ intent to circumvent the will of establishment insiders. Co-chair Meshawn Maddock, who has previously called election fraud fanatics “my people,” spent the week admiring Mike Lindell’s deranged election conspiracy symposium.
“The MIGOP has completely given themselves over to a dangerously corrosive extremism that has them still attempting to work the refs long after everyone else has gone home. Continuing to pursue proof that confirms all of the many election conspiracy theories nearly a year after the last ballot was cast displays how far gone Republicans are,” said Rodericka Applewhaite, MDP spokesperson. “Permanently stuck in 2020, Republican party leaders have made it clear to Michiganders that they’re not concerned with their present, much less their future as workers and small businesses get sidelined.”
