NBC News: Michigan GOP’s “bitter fight” is “getting so cataclysmically bad” that it will hurt the Michigan Republican “four-way primary”
LANSING — Have you lost track of the number of Republicans who’ve considered jumping into the Michigan GOP Senate Showdown and their attacks against each other? We haven’t… Now, Justin Amash is debating throwing his name in the hat, and he didn’t waste any time calling out Rogers, Meijer, Craig, and Pensler for being “uninspired, unserious, and unprepared.”
Here’s the latest on the “radioactive” “clash” between Michigan Republicans:
- Every Republican is starting to come out of the woodwork to explore a Senate primary run. The latest being Justin Amash who didn’t mince words, saying the “people of Michigan and our country deserve better” than any of the “uninspired, unserious, and unprepared” Republican candidates in the race.
- Pensler called out Rogers for “trying to run from his record” and being “the type of politician who’ll say anything and do anything for his own personal promotion.”
- Pensler didn’t stop there, bashing “advantageous” “career politician” Rogers for not taking “strong stances” in order to “hold onto… influence and power.”
- Rogers attacked his opponents, dissing Meijer for getting “schnookered,” calling out Craig for not being “willing to work” which will cause him to not “end up on the ballot,” and slamming Pensler’s inexperience, having never “been in the business.”
- Pensler launched an ad hitting Rogers on his “complete lack of principles” following his endorsement of Donald Trump.
- In response to a question about him calling Trump a “third-world dictator” on January 6, Rogers claimed that the insurrection was just a “stylistic” difference.
- NBC News highlighted how Michigan GOP’s “bitter fight” is “getting so cataclysmically bad” that it will hurt the Senate candidates in the crowded Republican primary.
See for yourself:
Detroit News: Former U.S. Rep. Amash exploring GOP run for U.S. Senate in Michigan
- Former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash of west Michigan said Thursday he’s forming an exploratory committee as he mulls joining the Republican primary contest for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
- “They see what I see: contenders for the seat who are uninspired, unserious, and unprepared…”
- “The people of Michigan and our country deserve better…”
- He clashed with Rogers, who chaired the House Intelligence panel, over Amash’s push for reforms to government surveillance methods and other national security issues when they served together. Rogers fundraised for Amash primary opponent Brian Ellis in 2014.
Justin Barclay Show: Pensler: “[Rogers] is trying to run from his record… I think this is again, the type of politician who’ll say anything and do anything for his own personal promotion. I wanted to call him out on it. I was frankly disgusted by it.”
Justin Barclay Show: Pensler: “I think this is just [Rogers] being advantageous…”
Justin Barclay Show: Pensler: “There is a tendency, not just among Mike Rogers, among career politicians I’m afraid, who are so determined to hold onto their influence and power that they don’t take strong stances and they don’t take principled stances, so they don’t solve problems. And I think that is at the root of a lot of our moral problems in the country.”
Michigan Initiative Monthly Meeting: Rogers: “[Meijer] absolutely got schnookered. And why he wants to get promoted is beyond me. He got schnookered.”
Michigan Initiative Monthly Meeting: Rogers: “I don’t think he [Craig] is willing to work.”
Michigan Initiative Monthly Meeting: Rogers: “I don’t think he’ll [Craig] end up on the ballot honestly.”
Michigan Initiative Monthly Meeting: Rogers: “But they haven’t been engaged. They haven’t been around. I don’t know. You know, it’s easy to say ‘I’ll be the toughest guy in the Senate, but you’ve never been in the business, right?’ … That’s the guy who said he’s gonna run, Sandy Pensler.”
Inside the Newsroom: Josh Kraushaar: “Just to repeat, you said the behavior from the Trump administration is only seen in third-world dictatorships, that was an easy decision for you to support someone who you compared to a third-world dictatorship a few years ago?” … Rogers: “…Did I have some stylistic things that I talked about with the President? Absolutely I did.”
NBC News: Republicans in two key swing states are charting very different paths after getting crushed in 2022
- For Republicans in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two critical swing states, the 2022 midterms followed a similar script.
- Hugely divisive primaries. Fringe candidates backed by former President Donald Trump ascending to the top of the statewide ballot. Electoral wipeouts that saw Republicans lose every contested statewide office and relinquish control of long-held branches of state legislatures.
- In Michigan, the GOP is presenting a much less united front.
- Republicans are in a bitter fight over the potential ouster of the state party chair, Kristina Karamo, whose term followed her defeat as an election-denying nominee for secretary of state in 2022.
- The direction Republicans take in both states could have massive implications on a pair of competitive Senate races, as well as on the presidential contest…
- Jason Roe, who served as executive director of the Michigan GOP until he was forced out for speaking out against the pro-Trump stolen election myth, said many Michigan Republicans “thought 2022 was rock bottom.”
- “And I think Kristina Karamo’s response was ‘hold my beer,’” he added. “As bad as 2022 was, as much of a wake up call as it should have been, I don’t think anyone foresaw things getting so cataclysmically bad as they have gotten in her first year of leadership, and maybe her only year of leadership…”
- In Michigan, infighting is much more pronounced.
- The state party fight comes as a four-way primary to fill an open Senate seat picks up steam. Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, businessman Sandy Pensler and two former congressmen who have been critical of Trump, Peter Meijer and Mike Rogers, have all tossed their hats in the ring.
- Gustavo Portela, a Republican strategist involved in Michigan races, wondered if turmoil at the state GOP would hurt the eventual nominee’s chances.
- The national Republican aide working on Senate races put it in more blunt terms.
- “Karamo is just a disaster,” this person said. “And for whatever reason, the Michigan state party is way more of a s—show than most other states.”
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