Former President Trump is expected to meet this week with Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), a source familiar with the meeting confirms to Fox News.
The meeting comes amid strained relations between the former president – whose clout among congressional Republicans remains very formidable and whose poll numbers among GOP voters remain sky high – and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnnell, who remains the most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill.
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A GOP source with knowledge of the meeting told Fox News that the get-together, which was first reported by the Washington Post, is a check-in between the two leaders. Scott’s expected to give Trump an update on how efforts by the reelection arm of Senate Republicans to win back the chamber are proceeding as well as give an update on fundraising and discuss ways the former president can be helpful in electing Republicans in the 2022 midterms.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
The Senate is split 50-50 between the two parties, but the Democrats hold a razor-thin majority due to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris through her constitutional role as president of the Senate. That means the GOP only needs a one-seat pickup to regain the majority in next year’s midterms that it just lost in the 2020 election cycle.
But Republicans are defending 20 of the 34 seats up for grabs in 2022. And they’re defending GOP-held open seats in the key battlegrounds of North Carolina and Pennsylvania as well as the potentially competitive state of Ohio.
The source said the meeting was planned a few weeks ago and that Scott – who’s on a fundraising swing in south Florida – will stop by to meet with Trump. The former president has been residing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach since leaving the White House on Jan. 20.
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Another potential topic at the meeting may be Trump’s repeated vows to support primary challengers to congressional Republicans who voted to impeach him or convict him of impeachment as well as other GOP politicians who’ve crossed him in the past.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021. Trump rejected the idea of starting a third political party and instead teased the idea of a 2024 run in a speech Sunday at the conservative conference. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
Trump last week targeted Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who’s the only one of the eight Senate Republicans who voted last month to convict Trump in his impeachment trial who’s up for reelection next year.
“I will not be endorsing, under any circumstances, the failed candidate from the great State of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski. She represents her state badly and her country even worse. I do not know where other people will be next year, but I know where I will be — in Alaska campaigning against a disloyal and very bad Senator,” Trump emphasized in a statement.
He’s also taken aim at Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and has threatened to support any potential primary challenger to the number-two lawmaker in Senate GOP leadership.
But Scott has repeatedly said the NRSC will support all Senate incumbents who are running for reelection in 2022.
“I’m clearly going to support our incumbents,” Scott spotlighted in a January interview with Fox News.
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Relations between Trump and McConnell, the longtime powerful leader of the Senate Republicans, have been basically nonexistent in the wake of the GOP losing both the White House and the Senate. While McConnell voted to acquit Trump in last month’s impeachment trial, he then took to the Senate floor to blast Trump for his role in encouraging the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by right-wing extremists and other supporters of the then-president who aimed to derail congressional certification of President Biden’s election victory.
In this image from video, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks before the final vote on the Senate version of the COVID-19 relief bill in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, March 6, 2021. (Senate Television via AP)
McConnell on Wednesday privately boasted to fellow lawmakers that the outside super PAC supporting Senate Republicans had outraised the main pro-Trump super PAC during the 2020 campaign, Fox News confirmed from multiple sources. The news was first reported by the New York Times.
The strained relations between Trump and McConnell stand in contrast to Trump’s much warmer relationship with House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in late January.
The meeting between Trump and Scott also comes amid measurable tension between Trump and party leaders over the former president’s push in recent days to channel his supporters’ contributions through his own political committees rather than through the NRSC, the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is the House GOP reelection arm, and the Republican National Committee.
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Trump’s move came after lawyers for the former president last weekend sent cease-and-desist letters to the RNC, NRSC and NRCC asking that they stop using Trump’s name and likeness for fundraising efforts.
The NRSC, separately, announced Wednesday that it raised $6.4 million last month, with more than half of the contributions coming from grassroots donors. It was the second straight month of strong fundraising. The NRSC reported having more than $15 million cash on hand as of March 1.
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