News/Commentary

Ronna’s rant: RNC chair flings mud at Charlie Kirk, Kari Lake as her popularity falls off cliff

December 24, 2022 | | Print Article

Embattled Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel is no longer at war with just Harmeet Dhillon and Mike Lindell, the candidates seeking to replace her — she’s also at war with Charlie Kirk and Kari Lake.

The newfound war with Kirk erupted this week after the Turning Point USA founder hosted an event, AmericaFest, during which he, one, ran a straw poll to determine who should be the next RNC chair, and two, invited Dhillon on stage as a guest speaker.

Dhillon won the poll hands down. In fact, even Lindell out-performed McDaniel:

Following the poll, Dhillon then spoke to the crowd.

“I’m here to offer this party an alternative. I’m here to redefine what this party sees as victory. It means winning elections. It doesn’t mean turning out more voters. It doesn’t mean outreach. It doesn’t mean the number of phone calls you try to make but didn’t connect. That’s not a victory. Victory is our people in office making laws that protect our fundamental liberties,” she said, according to Politico.

McDaniel didn’t care for any of this.

“This is Turning Point and Harmeet trying to take over the RNC,” she said during an appearance Wednesday on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s podcast.

“They do great conferences, [but] how many young voters did they register? How many youth voters turned out this cycle? How about the college kids in Arizona, where they are headquartered?” she continued.

Her remarks triggered clapback from two sources — Dhillon and Kirk.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Dhillon said, “Turning Point USA is the leading conservative youth organization in America — exactly the kind of activists we rely on and need to motivate. It’s a puzzling campaign choice for Ronna to go out of her way to attack a large segment of our current and future grassroots, volunteer and voting base.”

As for Kirk, he responded directly by answering all of McDaniel’s questions.

Responding to them in tweets posted this week, he said Turning Point USA has “logged more than 500k volunteer hours this election cycle” and “directly contacted and engaged over 5 million voters.”

Look:

This same week, Kirk sent a shocking email to all 168 members of the RNC warning that donors and activists will desert the party unless it changes.

“How do we plan to win in 2024 if you so boldly reject listening to the grassroots, our donors, and the biggest organizations and voices in the conservative movement? If ignored, we will have the most stunted and muted Republican Party in the history of the conservative movement, the likes of which we haven’t seen in generations,” he wrote.

The letter was first reported by the Washington Post.

“The extraordinary message came in the midst of a bitter GOP leadership contest, with incumbent RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel seeking to beat back a challenge from Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney and committee member from California who has been paid for legal consulting by former president Donald Trump’s political action committee, among numerous clients,” according to the Post.

As noted earlier, McDaniel is also now at war with Lake, the Arizona Republican who lost the gubernatorial race in this year’s midterm elections.

Speaking on Newsmax earlier this week, she blamed the GOP’s poor results in this year’s midterms on bad candidates like, in her opinion, Lake.

“Look at Arizona. You’ve had the state party at war with the governor in that state for four years. The two candidates for governor, one wouldn’t endorse the other. You had one candidate saying, ‘If you’re a McCain voter, get the hell out of my rallies.’ Then the McCain voters said, ‘Yeah? I’m not gonna vote for you,'” she said.

Listen:

Who made the McCain remark? Lake …

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles