‘Word to the wise’: Laura Ingraham warns GOP against ‘establishment trap’ heading into 2024

Following midterm results that fell well short of the “Red wave” Republicans were promised, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham warned potential 2024 candidates for the White House against falling for the GOP “establishment trap” that decries populist policies and instead clamors for “endless war” and unfettered globalism.

(Video: Fox News)

“It was predictable, the GOP establishment, which has been losing elections since about 2006, would declare the Republicans’ disappointing midterm showing ‘the death-knell for populism,'” Ingraham stated in her opening “Ingraham Angle” monologue on Friday.

The rationale, Ingraham explained is “that because certain Trump-backed candidates lost in key races, the entire populist movement lost too.”

The Fox News host cited The New York Times, which, she said, likened Tuesday’s results “to the midterm elections of 1998, when setback then led to renewal. When the party then went on to embrace Texas Governor George W. Bush, who had won re-election, of course, in 1998 in Texas.”

“Word to the wise,” Ingraham noted, “if you’re actually trying to help Ron DeSantis in 2024, best not to make a comparison to the president who hasn’t been invited to speak at any RNC convention since he left office.”

“But the pro-war coalition is very bold — you have to face facts — and they are marching together led by their fallen star general, Liz Cheney, who is enjoying the moment herself, falsely believing that Tuesday’s results mean America is hankering for the good old days of Falluja and Kandahar.”

Ingraham also pointed to New York Times columnist David Brooks, who credited former President DonaldTrump with reinventing the GOP and destroying “the corporate husk of Reaganism” before bashing “performative populism.”

Trump, Brooks wrote, “set the party on the path to being a multiracial working-class party.”

According to Ingraham, Trump “deserves credit, for that and a lot more.”

“Think about the shape the GOP was in back in 2015,” she urged viewers. “People have very short memories.”

“First of all, it was a boring party,” she said. “It was stuck in a 2004 Time Warp with out-of-touch approaches and totally not in sync with the concerns of average Americans.”

“Before 2016, Republicans were losing the working-class voters, those Reagan Democrats — they were falling away,” she reminded her audience. “And they were also failing to connect with Hispanics back then. And let’s not forget, Republicans? They were helping China get richer and more powerful as more Americans, of course, had their jobs shipped overseas.”

“Obama beat both of their establishment candidates in 2008 and then 2012,” she explained. “[John] McCain and [Mitt] Romney were annihilated. Florida went Democrat in both cycles, and in the process, Obama chalked up two Supreme Court justices. He would have had three if it weren’t for [Mitch] McConnell.”

“The establishment GOP had embraced globalism and endless war,” she said. “They had overseen the flattening of Americans’ wealth and presided over the 2008 economic meltdown. All the while paying lip service to social conservatives.”

Trump, Ingraham stated, “turned that all around.”

 

While Ingraham declined to discuss Trump’s “dustup” with “other potential 2024 nominees,” she did warn viewers to “keep your eye on the establishment types that start throwing money at” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

“The big government coalition representing Wall Street, big defense contractors, Big Tech — they’re already circling,” she stated. “They’re going to try to co-opt DeSantis and change him, and eventually, they will try to swallow him whole.”

And people shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that populace policies are “extreme.”

“Populism isn’t extreme,” Ingraham argued, “it’s pragmatic.”

The host recapped the very real victories won by Republicans in the midterm elections, including the four seats that were flipped red in New York, “closer-than-expected races in the Pacific Northwest, the continued shift rightward of Hispanic voters, and, of course, the huge populace expansion in Texas and, of course, in Florida.”

“Pretty boy Beto lost by almost 11 points to incumbent Greg Abbott,” she said. “And strong populst social conservative Dan Patrick was reelected as lieutenant governor by double digits as well.”

 

“So, if the establishment really has all the answers, how is it that Lisa Murkowski didn’t sail to victory in Alaska? And how did Romney get embarrassed in Utah when he refused to endorse Mike Lee, who ended up winning handily?” she asked.

These wins, Ingraham believes, are indicative of the real lesson Republicans need to learn going forward, and the RINO, establishment side of the GOP will do whatever it takes to stop any candidate that embraces America First policies.

“If not Trump, whoever rises to the pack in 2024, he or she is going to be bombarded by the Romney/Cheney crowd,” Ingraham predicted. “They’re going to pull out every stop to push him or her toward the old Bush policies of endless war, partnering with the CCP, and open borders.”

“And here’s the thing,” she continued. “It’s really tough if you’re a Republican to avoid getting pushed in that direction. Most GOP foreign policy types support the Bush foreign policy. Most GOP trade policy experts are pro-CCP, in pro-World Trade Organization. And most GOP policy types have sympathy for generous immigration amnesty.”

“DeSantis and his team?” she asked. “They will be flooded with memoranda supporting all of these bad ideas.”

But Ingraham remains optimistic heading into the presidential campaign cycle.

“My guess, and it’s just a guess right now, is that DeSantis and any smart serious candidates will consult with everyone in the GOP, but avoid the establishment trap,” she said.

“I’m thinking of a campaign with a positive, fresh populist message that affirmatively embraces America First policies,” she suggested. “That has the best chance of winning.”

Melissa Fine

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