Joy Reid hosted former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele on Thursday for a discussion on how Donald Trump’s popularity within the Republican party will affect other candidates.
“It almost doesn’t matter whether he’s the nominee, Michael. Because, if he’s not, whoever the nominee is, is going to have to vow to save Trump, ‘Trump is still the greatest president.'” Reid said. (RELATED: Black Voters Soften On Biden, Move Towards Trump For 2024 Election: POLL)
Steele agreed with her assessment, adding that a non-Trump nominee would still “live in his shadow.”
.@MichaelSteele on Donald Trump: “This has always been forevermore about taking control of a party that he new he could punk in the first instance.” #TheReidOut pic.twitter.com/kIyw6A6uOl
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) July 28, 2023
“And that’s the other side of this narrative that no one wants to talk about. And you want to push DeSantis out there? Flop. You want to raise up Tim Scott? Oh, hopefully, you know,” Steele said.
“Ok, and when you do that, what do you think this Trumpian base does? And more importantly, what do you think Donald Trump himself does? Does he then say to whomever has usurped him, ‘oh here’s my base? Take them. And let me help you become the next President of the United States,” Steele added.
“No, that’s not how this works. This has always been forever more about taking control of a party that he knew he could punk in the first instance,” Steele said.
Trump holds a commanding lead over the rest of the field in the 2024 GOP primary. According to FiveThirtyEight, 53.8% of GOP primary voters are behind former president Trump. His chief rival, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has slipped to 15.5% of the primary vote. Vivek Ramaswamy sits at 6.8% and former vice president Mike Pence holds 4.6% of the vote.