GOP plots revenge in Congress amid raging views on Trump conviction; fundraising surges

WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers are seeking revenge for the historic conviction of former President Donald Trump in a New York hush money case, which they’re calling a miscarriage of justice and a pointed political maneuver.

In the Senate, a cohort of conservative lawmakers are pledging to stop all Democratic priorities and block Biden administration nominees from approval.

And in the GOP-led House, lawmakers plan to interrogate the Manhattan prosecutors that sought the conviction, strip federal funding from the state of New York, and defund the efforts of special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing Trump’s classified documents case.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

Their efforts may not be successful – the House’s pushes are sure to face a dead end in the Democratically-controlled Senate, for example – but it reflects the party’s continued loyalty to Trump and the political opportunity they see to rally support for his reelection bid.

On the campaign trail, they’re using the conviction to their advantage. The GOP’s donor platform, WinRed, was overwhelmed with traffic in the wake of the ruling, and both the Senate and House GOP campaign arms have reported a surge in fundraising.

Candidates in competitive states are also already pushing messages that their Democratic competitors refuse to condemn the ruling, including new advertisements from GOP senate candidates in Montana and Ohio alleging their opponent supports a judicial strategy to interfere in the presidential election.

The verdict “adds fuel to Trump’s campaign. I think people view this more as a cause now than just a head-to-head matchup,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who was one of the senators to pledge to block movement in the Senate. He noted the fundraising jump and the new Senate ads.

“I think it’s touching a nerve with the American people. They’re going to run their own races, but the truth is, I think the American people understand what’s at stake, which is, do we want to have a constitutional republic or a banana republic?”

A Senate blockade is likely

A group of eight conservative senators led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, released a statement Friday in the wake of the verdict claiming that the Biden Administration has “made a mockery of the rule of law.”

“As a Senate Republican conference, we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart,” they wrote.

The group pledged to block any additional funding that doesn't address national security, block confirmations of Biden’s political and judicial nominees, and purposely slow down consideration of any Democrat-led legislation.

Most of the significant policy that Congress will pass this year has already gone through – the closer lawmakers get to an election, the harder it is for them to compromise on significant legislation. So most of the policy the conservative group plans to block would likely be Democratic messaging bills that stand no chance of passage anyway.

“We don’t have a lot to do between now and (the election) other than judges and nominations,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who is part of the blockade effort. “But as Republicans, we need to stand up for our country. This wasn’t against Donald Trump. This was against people that are true Americans and believe in this country.”

Confirming the president’s nominees for political and judicial positions is a key duty of the Senate – and can have big ripple effects in people’s lives, as they carry out basic government functions. It's also key to judicial appointments, reflecting the perspective of the president that appointed them well after leaving office.

The upper chamber requires every single senator to agree to speed things up for timely consideration of legislation and appointments, so the lawmakers’ threat to clamp down on nominees could be a serious headache for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, clogging up the Senate floor with lengthy appointment considerations instead of policy.

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) speak to reporters outside the Senate Chambers in the U.S. Capitol on March 22, 2024 in Washington, DC.

House GOP to fight with 'everything in our arsenal'

House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has requested Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg along with Matthew Colango, an attorney on Bragg’s team, to testify before a subcommittee probing weaponization of the federal government next week.

The two would speak in a hearing to “examine actions by state and local prosecutors to engage politically motivated prosecutions . . . in particular, the recent political prosecution of President Donald Trump,” Jordan wrote in a letter to the prosecutors last week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pledged on “Fox News Sunday” that his conference would “fight back . . . with everything in our arsenal,” but it’s unlikely the lower chamber could do much to help the former president. Johnson noted Jordan’s panel and added that Republicans would work “within the confines of the rule of law.”

The conviction is certain to reignite calls from Johnson’s right flank to restrict federal funding for the Justice Department and namely, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. Conservative agitators have taken aim at special counsel Jack Smith, who indicted Trump last year for mishandling classified documents and trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election he lost.

Jordan sent a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., on Monday, recommending the committee to withhold funding for “rogue prosecutors (who) abuse the rules of professional conduct and their duty to do justice in service of politicized ends.”

Though even if Republicans did move to defund the special counsel's office, that would happen through the annual government funding process, which isn't expected to be completed anytime soon.Even if Republicans were to try cutting off funding for the special counsel’s office, such a move has a next-to-zero chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, center, arrives for a House Republican conference meeting on Capitol Hill on May 22, 2024 in Washington, DC.

“We’re gonna try but (if) we send it over the Senate, it’s not gonna do anything,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who supports defunding the office of special counsel, conceded.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wants to go further and hold back all federal funding – such as money for education and law enforcement – for the whole state of New York. She posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “Republicans should not vote to fund a single penny to that corrupt state.”

The Georgia Republican also told reporters on Monday she has “articles of impeachment” against Biden ready, but said she would talk to Johnson first and introduce it to her colleagues in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning. House Republicans’ existing impeachment inquiry into the president has largely fizzled out as GOP lawmakers have grown skeptical about the investigation’s lack of evidence.

Surge in fundraising

The conviction is already becoming a talking point for Republicans in competitive Senate and House races.

Republican candidate Tim Sheehy took out an ad claiming Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., is among the Democrats cheering on “state sponsored political persecution.”Also, GOP candidate Bernie Moreno released an ad saying Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, stands with Biden “even as he turns the judicial system into a weapon to interfere in a presidential election.”

There is no evidence to suggest that the Biden Administration was involved with the criminal trial, which was prosecuted in the New York state legal system.

The Trump campaign said on Friday that it had raised nearly $53 million in the 24 hours after he was convicted. By comparison, the campaign had raised around $58 million in the second half of 2023.

The two campaign arms for House and Senate Republicans – the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee – reported the largest single day of online fundraising for the campaign cycle on the day after the verdict, raising more than $300,000 and $360,000, respectively.

Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., speaks to reporters outside of the Senate Chamber ahead of a vote on a foreign aid package at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on April 23, 2024.

The surge could close the financial gap with Democrats, who had been outpacing Republicans in fundraising this cycle.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who is running for the open Senate seat in her state, said it’s “too early to know” how much impact the verdict might have on competitive races like hers. She acknowledged that Republicans had a spike in donations after the verdict was announced, but said Democrats are also working to leverage the news for fundraising.

“Everyone I know was talking about a spike in donations in the first 24 hours after the verdict, so it just re-emphasizes just how polarizing Trump is,” she said. “I don’t think it helps Trump win those independents because a lot of them are like, ‘well, I don’t love the idea of a convicted felon.’”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GOP plots revenge in Congress amid raging views on Trump conviction; fundraising surges