MI GOP Rep Departs Party Due To Trump’s ‘Unacceptable’ Efforts To Overturn Results

UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 26: Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., leaves the Capitol after the House passed a fiscal 2018 budget resolution on October 26, 2017. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 26: Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., leaves the Capitol after the House passed a fiscal 2018 budget resolution on October 26, 2017. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI) on Monday issued a pointed rebuke of President Trump as he announced his departure from the Republican Party, citing the sitting president’s vehement refusal to halt his legal efforts challenging election results even as the Electoral College is set to cement President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

Mitchell, who announced last year that he would not seek a third term and will retire at the end of this session of Congress, wrote in a letter to GOP leaders on Monday that he is fed up with Trump’s legal efforts to challenge the legitimacy of the election process, which spurred him to request that the Clerk of the House change his party affiliation to “independent.”

Mitchell also told GOP leaders in a letter issued Monday that he has decided to withdraw from “engagement and association with the Republican Party at both the national and state level.”

Mitchell wrote in his letter that he is concerned with House GOP leadership continuing to egg on Trump’s bogus allegations of widespread election fraud as the sitting president’s legal team attempts to throw out millions of ballots in order to overturn Biden’s legitimate victory have proven fruitless.

Mitchell warned that Trump’s lawsuits sowing doubt on the election process could cause “long-term harm to our democracy” and that it is “unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote.”

Mitchell took further aim at Republican leaders who had been “collectively sit(ting) back and tolerat(ing) unfounded conspiracy theories and ‘stop the steal’ rallies without speaking out for our electoral process,” and that the breaking point for him was when “the leadership of the Republican Party and our Republican Conference in the House actively participating in at least some of those efforts.”

Mitchell, who voted for Trump twice and has been a strong supporter of the President policy-wise as well, also appeared to jab Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in his letter. Mitchell suggested to McDaniel that he’s sure she knows better than to play along with the baseless voter fraud claims that Trump has spouted.

During an interview on CNN Monday afternoon, Mitchell reiterated his rebuke of Trump’s flailing efforts to overturn the election results and Republican leaders who are still going along with the sitting president’s long shot efforts of a second term.

Mitchell’s latest remarks come a week after 126 House Republicans banned together to back Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s (R) lawsuit that attempted to toss votes in four battleground states that Biden won. On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected Paxon’s lawsuit.

This isn’t the first time Mitchell has called Trump out on his legal battles that have failed to gain steam.

Mitchell took aim at Trump after the sitting president vowed to “keep going” in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday morning.

Late last month, Mitchell urged Trump to stop waging lawsuits that center around baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Now that the GOP has started its death spiral, the media should start asking these folks what they should call their new party. We need something concrete to draw others away, to minimize all the crazies that will remain.

  2. The GOP in general far outperformed Trump in this election… They gained (I think) 13 House seats, will likely retain control of the Senate; did very well in State elections. Terrifies me to write this, but the GOP is going strong. Fills me with dread, honestly.

  3. Well the current folk who are calling themselves Republicans should really be moved over to the column under the header Trump Nationalist Party, TNP for short.
    But then what to call the new party since Trump has dragged “Republican” through the shitter. They can’t call themselves conservatives since they blew up the deficit, they allowed Trump pilfer funds from the DoD to pay for his border wall which he has only completed less than 400 miles or so, they could rally around Mitch and call themselves the Do Nothing Party.

  4. Too little, too late. He just wanted to “appear” to have a spine.

  5. Will Witmer replace him? Does it have to be a Republican? Will Michigan have to have a special election to replace him?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

29 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for rfscalf Avatar for bobatkinson Avatar for manhattan123 Avatar for cervantes Avatar for squeakyrat Avatar for dont Avatar for perrin42 Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for drriddle Avatar for lastroth Avatar for potomacker Avatar for triletter Avatar for darrtown Avatar for reggid Avatar for mordant_k Avatar for noonm Avatar for icarrion Avatar for timorwig Avatar for occamscoin Avatar for ernesto1581 Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for kovie Avatar for Kurtywerty

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: