OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:28 PM – Friday, March 8, 2024
The Republican National Committee (RNC) formally elected Michael Whatley as its new head and Lara Trump as the co-chair on Friday. The vote solidified former president Donald Trump’s wishes to reshape RNC leadership as he looks to the November election.
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During the RNC’s leadership meetings in Houston, Texas, officials chose to replace outgoing chair Ronna McDaniel, a decision that many Republicans were ecstatic about.
Whatley promised the RNC that he “will be focused like a laser on getting out the vote and protecting the ballot” in a speech to members.
“In less than eight months, we are going to determine the fate of not only the United States but of the entire world,” Whatley said. “And this body, the RNC, is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly, every single day to elect our nominee Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States, flip the Senate, expand our majority in the House of Representatives.”
Whatley is a Trump supporter who has held positions as General Counsel of the RNC and head of the North Carolina GOP. Following the 2020 election, which Trump has repeatedly said was manipulated, Whatley has repeated the former president’s assertions regarding “election integrity.”
During a 2021 panel discussion on “protecting elections” at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Whatley talked extensively about his attempts to gather hundreds of attorneys and volunteer vote watchers in North Carolina. Additionally, he has expressed skepticism regarding absentee and mail-in voting, unless they are combined with voter ID laws.
As the new co-chair, Lara Trump will be heavily involved in fundraising. Ahead of what promises to be a protracted and brutal general election campaign, the RNC has trailed behind Democrats in terms of cash inflow over the last twelve months.
While speaking to members of the RNC committee on Friday, Lara joyfully mentioned that the organization had already received a $100,000 check and she emphasized the value of early voting and fundraising.
“We’ve got to play the game a little bit differently. We have to encourage people to do things like early voting,” she said.
Top Trump campaign advisor Chris LaCivita, who is joining the RNC to manage day-to-day operations, rejected the notion that the RNC would pay for Trump’s legal fees.
“The fact of the matter is not a penny of the RNC’s money or, for that matter, the campaign’s money has gone or will go to pay legal fees,” LaCivita told The Associated Press.
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