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Michael Bender’s new book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside of How Trump Lost,” discusses fights between the Republican National Committee (RNC) and former President Donald Trump’s campaign manager.
The fight between RNC chair Ronna McDaniel and Bill Stepien led to some RNC officials not voting for the former President during the 2020 Presidential election.
“By 2020, the RNC wasn’t merely an extension of the Trump campaign. (2020 campaign manager) Brad Parscale had effectively turned them into a full partner, and Ronna had become one of the President’s closest advisers. The RNC was paying for the field staff. They were covering costs for the state directors who couldn’t get calls returned from campaign headquarters. Even the lease for the campaign headquarters was being paid for by the RNC,” Bender wrote in the book.
“One major change when Stepien took over as campaign manager was the reelection campaign’s relationship with the Republican National Committee. Friction remained from the 2016 race between Stepien and much of Ronna’s senior leadership team. Ronna was running the Michigan Republican Party during that race, but Stepien disapproved of her decision to keep many of those same RNC staffers in her orbit,” an excerpt from the book reads.
Bender writes that Stepien questioned the loyalty of Ronna’s staff to the President.
“The President’s handling of COVID and the White House’s treatment of Ronna had top staffers inside the RNC openly musing- for the first time in their lives-about not voting for the Republican nominee for President. Ultimately, some did not cast their Election Day ballot for Trump.”
The RNC says that Bender’s claims are not true.
“This is not true. There was no organization or team more dedicated to re-electing President Trump than the RNC,” a spokesperson told Fox News.
The book also mentions tension between McDaniel and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The RNC was set to launch the online fundraising site WinRed after seeing how successful Democrats had been with ActBlue.
Bender claimed that McDaniel “viewed the WinRed deal as a legacy project that could benefit the party for years to come. Keeping the new company as a nonprofit, she told Jared, would make sure it remained as an arm of the RNC.”
“Jared wasn’t interested. ‘I don’t give a f–k about the future of the Republican Party!’ he told Ronna inside the hotel meeting room. ‘Good to know,’ Ronna shot back. ‘I will be running for chair for a second term, and I will make sure you don’t come anywhere near this!’”
