GOP leaders are scrambling to distance themselves — and the party at large — from a band of hard-line House conservatives whose flirtation with forming a caucus espousing white nationalist views has ignited a firestorm of controversy on Capitol Hill.
Anti-Trump centrists within the GOP and vulnerable Republicans in battleground districts are racing to denounce the “America First Caucus,” whose stated purpose in a platform document included the defense of America as a nation “strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”
Facing widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum, the Republicans reportedly behind the group — including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) — appear to have abandoned the project. However, in the face of bipartisan criticism, their proposed caucus has created an enormous headache for Republican leaders seeking to steer the party away from an image of racial insensitivity and appeal to a broader swath of voters, including women and minorities, in the post-Trump era.
Addressing the controversy, former GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) told The Hill: “This is a modern, decaf version of the KKK — a group designed to elevate one race and ethnicity by diminishing all others. It should be summarily dismissed and condemned.”
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Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), the chairman of the moderate Republican Governance Group, condemned the proposed caucus saying: “Our nation was founded upon freedom and equality. As Americans we should always strive to uphold and advance these fundamental values.”
“Racism and nativism are antithetical to our core principles and should have no place in our society, let alone the Halls of Congress,” Katko said, according to The Hill.
An America First Caucus “policy platform” began circulating on Capitol Hill late last week, sparking a public outcry and private handwringing from GOP leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers. First reported by Punchbowl News, the seven-page draft document called for an end to mail-in voting, COVID-19 government restrictions and U.S. foreign aid. But it also promoted what it called America’s “uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and infrastructure projects that reflect “European architecture.”
The America First platform “is complete bullshit and a huge distraction,” said one GOP strategist who works on House campaigns. “It undermines the bigger and more important story here, that there is strong diversity within the Republican Party and this current freshman class is providing us a strong path forward on how to connect with and relate to an increasingly more diverse electorate.”
Statements from other Republicans were also reported by the Hill:
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who also flipped a Democratic-held seat, asked if the America First Caucus platform was “a joke,” adding in a tweet that “America First should mean ALL Americans. Wherever you are from, whatever you believe, as long as you want to be here and be free.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), one of 11 Republicans who voted with Democrats in February to oust Greene from her congressional committees, went a step further, calling on the House Republican Conference to expel any lawmaker who signs up for the America First Caucus.
“While we can’t prevent someone from calling themselves Republican, we can loudly say they don’t belong to us,” Kinzinger tweeted.
Top GOP leaders also stepped in to condemn the group’s message. Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the third-ranking House Republican, characterized the GOP as a party of “equal opportunity” and “tolerance” — one that rejects “racism, nativism, and anti-Semitism.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) volunteered a similar message, framing the GOP as a party that spurns the politics of race and identity.
“The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln & the party of more opportunity for all Americans — not nativist dog whistles,” McCarthy tweeted on Friday.
GOP leaders avoided naming the nascent group, however, as well as the lawmakers behind it. And some Republicans suggested that’s because party leaders also face the awkward political reality that nativist politics — like that embraced by Trump — has been effective in animating the party’s conservative base.
“If the GOP doesn’t stand up and identify these individuals for who they are … there’s real trouble there. But to say the GOP is in trouble, they’re not,” former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) told CNN on Monday. “In 2022, I think they’re going to take back the [House] majority on some of this messaging.”
Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the America First Caucus “one of the nuttiest things I’ve ever seen.”
“Republicans need to denounce it,” he said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.”
