The Never-Trumper SMEAR
It’s quite amusing watching all of these GOPe types thumping their chests and proclaiming their long-enduring love for Donald Trump. One of the more popular GOPe stunts this election cycle is to slam your opponent as a ‘Never-Trumper.’
Oh, we do have some of those in North Carolina. John Locke’s John Hood is still bitter about the outcome of the November 2016 race. Hood’s sugar daddy, Art Pope, appears to still be holding a grudge against Trump too.
But it is amazing to see how many political celebrities in this state were nowhere near Donald Trump during the primaries. Robin Hayes, currently under federal indictment, was named state campaign co-chairman for Marco Rubio in 2016. Yet, it was OK for him to be NCGOP chairman. (You didn’t hear him start to praise Trump until after the North Carolina primaries were over and Trump looked like a sure thing for the nomination.)
State Rep. Jason Saine, partner-in-crime to speaker Timmy, was also a bigwig in the state’s Rubio organization in 2016. Yet, it is just fine for him to be a senior House official.
NCGOP official Zanstratosis Bunn partook in a coup at the 2016 election to try and throw the nomination to Ted Cruz. Here she is pictured refusing to go along with the state delegation to the national convention in endorsing Trump.
But, apparently, it’s OK for her to hold party offices and have inner-circle influence.
Thom Tillis is beating up primary challenger Garland Tucker for allegedly being a ‘Never Trumper.’ Funny thing is — Tillis ENDORSED Rubio just prior to the North Carolina primary.
Team Tillis likes to float around excerpts of a 2016 op-ed by Tucker. In it, he says he had serious reservations about Trump during the primaries. But when the choice became Hillary v. Trump, he was all for Trump. (This year, he has talked extensively about what a pleasant surprise Trump has been.)
At the recently completed NCGOP convention, both Miriam Chu AND Jim Womack got attacked as ‘Anti-Trump.’ I’ve seen both and talked to both in the limelight and outside the limelight. That dog just doesn’t hunt.
Meanwhile, a guy with dubious ties to the 2016 Trump campaign got swept into the party chairman’s seat.
‘Anti-Trump’ and ‘Never-Trump’ are the new slurs — like the left uses ‘bigot’ – to shut up foes and ruin them. Most people I know were with Ted Cruz or Rand Paul or someone like that in the 2016 primaries. (So STOP acting like you were there FROM THE BEGINNING.)
No one took Trump seriously, at first. It was quite easy to assume the campaign was a PR stunt from the world’s greatest showman and self-promoter. But he HAS BEEN a pleasant surprise thus far. (And I hope he keeps it up.)
I can’t remember seeing the GOP so consumed by me,me,me,me politicians. If you are
in the GOP because of what the party can do for you —go away. We did not become the
dominate party by people like you. You are only holding yourself and the party back.
Remember the great quote, “Lead, follow or get out of the way”. My favorite is “It’s
amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t worry about who gets the credit”.
Before relocating to NC, I voted in the VA primary for someone other than then-candidate Trump. Before the convention, I got onboard the Trump Train. I proudly support President Trump’s agenda and endorse the man, warts and all.
Zan worked tirelessly to help elect Republicans in 2016 including Trump. Anyone who attended the rallies or fundraisers knows this. In fact, I believe her vote as a 2016 Rules Committee member for the RNC Convention had more to do with assuring the grassroots delegates retained their sole power to determine the convention rules. Your readers should know the rules committee was voting to allow the RNC to amend the rules whenever they want outside of the Convention process during this vote. There were reasons for and against allowing and BOTH members of our committee expressed personal concern about sharing this power of the delegation with the RNC because intermediate changes could disadvantage candidates like Trump, Cruz and other top grassroots vote getters in the future. Ultimately Stark and Bunn voted differently, but both took the vote seriously and neither were Never Trumpers because of it.
Zan was a never Trump embarrassment at the national convention. Every chance she got she voted against Trump in procedural matters. She had to be told to “shut up and sit down” by Robin Hayes (the first time I ever liked him). In many pictures from the convention you will see Robin sitting right beside her, keeping her in line.
I a delegate to the convention. There were not many votes taken by delegates, and none against Trump.
The picture in this article was from the Rules Committee. Only Bunn and Stark served on the Rules Committee for NC. Both did a fine job representing our delegation on the committee. Hayes was not on the Rules committee.
Just because someone supported/voted for another candidate in the Primaries does not make them a “Never Trumper”