Republicans who voted to convict Trump face grassroots backlash

Bill Cassidy censured by local party after impeachment vote

Credit: Joshua Robertrs/Reuters

Mr Cassidy remained defiant on Sunday, telling ABC’s This Week it was clear that Mr Trump intended legislators to be intimidated.

"Even after he knew there was violence taking place, he continued to basically sanction the mob being there. And not until later that he actually asked them to leave."

Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey and North Carolina’s Richard Burr also faced condemnation from activists.  Both men, however, have announced their retirement.

The fallout continued on Sunday  with Mitch McConnell, who voted to acquit but then accused Mr Trump of being "practically and morally responsible" for the Capitol riot, coming under fire from both wings of an increasingly divided party.

Maryland governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate Larry Hogan, who said he would have voted to convict, could not understand Mr McConnell’s position.

Mitch McConnell under fire from Lindsey Graham

"Leader McConnell’s words were pretty strong. It didn’t match how he voted,"  he said on CNN.

South Carolina Senator and staunch Trump ally, Lindsey Graham, accused Mr McConnell of undermining Republicans’ hopes in next year’s mid-term elections.

“I think Senator McConnell’s speech, he got a load off his chest, but unfortunately put a load on the back of Republicans,” Mr Graham said on Fox News Sunday.

 “That speech you will see in 2022 campaigns, I would imagine if you’re a Republican running in Georgia, Arizona, New Hampshire where we have a chance to take back the Senate, they may be playing Senator McConnell’s speech and asking you about it if you’re a candidate.”

However, Mr McConnell appeared unrepentant, signalling that he would not hesitate to intervene in primary campaigns if he feared the party was about to pick a candidate he regarded as unelectable.

“My goal is, in every way possible, to have nominees representing the Republican Party who can win in November," Mr McConnell he said in a telephone interview on Saturday night.

"Some of them may be people the former president likes. Some of them may not be. The only thing I care about is electability."

Trump supporters, like Sebastian Gorka who worked as a White House adviser, reacted furiously.

"It’s about time all the 74 million who voted Republican last year see McConnell for the sleazy grifting faux Conservative he is," he told the Telegraph.

"It is also high time for a political accounting to remove all the corrupt swamp creatures like McConnell and Romney from the ranks of the Conservative MAGA Movement."

Jeffrey Lord, who worked in Ronald Reagan’s White House, told the Telegraph he believed the rift reflected a long-running division between the establishment "country club" wing of the party and blue-collar Republicans.

"This fight is the latest rendition of it. It has intensified and has moved along

“You will be seeing this over the 2022 and 2024 elections, whether or not Donald Trump runs for office.”