Amy Walter: Possibility Of Two GOP Lanes In 2028, A Trump-Backed MAGA Candidate vs. An America First Candidate
NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter join Amna Nawaz on Monday’s “PBS NewsHour” to discuss the latest political news, including how President Trump is starting to face some pushback on several fronts and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) interview on “60 Minutes.”
AMNA NAWAZ, PBS NEWSHOUR: Tam, as you know, hours after that air, President Trump railed against Greene on TRUTH Social – TRUTH Social, rather, calling her a rotten apple and a dumb person. How are you looking at all this? TAMARA KEITH, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO: And “Traitor Greene.” So this is a story as old as time or as long as Trump has been on the political stage. You have heard Republicans talk about how privately it’s different than what people say publicly. And she has – she’s taken it out into the open. She is openly expressing frustration with him. And that is leading to him lashing out. She says that she’s gotten threats and all of these other things that many people have experienced, doxxing and swatting and all of these things that many people involved in politics who’ve gotten on the wrong side of Donald Trump have experienced. She decided to just sort of, like, pull the parachute and quit Congress early, which actually creates far more problems for the president and his party in the House than if she stuck around and took the beating and had a primary and won or lost or whatever. So, in a way, she’s actually hurting him more by leaving Congress than by staying there. NAWAZ: How do you see this playing out? AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: I thought also it was interesting in this interview, when Lesley Stahl pushed her on, do you consider yourself a MAGA Republican, she said, I consider myself an America first candidate. And what’s going to be fascinating, especially as we start to get post-midterms and we start talking about the presidential race and who’s going to run for president in 2028, you can see this possibility of there being two lanes. Who’s the MAGA president – presidential candidate, i.e., the person who maybe has Trump’s blessing, and who’s going to try to run in a different lane, perhaps one that they call America first or something? So it’s not going to be an anti-Trump lane as much as it’s going to be something that looks not as aligned with Donald Trump himself or some of his policies.
