debate. it would have to depend on who the nominee was. it s deja vu all over again. joining us now for this discussion, former congressman mond mondaire jones. rana mcdaniel said president trump will support the republican nominee because it will be him. that s not exactly a commitment. here we are all over again. not committing to honoring election results. is that what this is? jim, it s silly, but it s scary. a loyalty pledge, think about that, a loyalty pledge for this republican party when the leader of this republican party, donald trump is loyal to no one and no thing but himself. he ll never sign a loyalty pledge to support whoever the republican nominee is. jim, look, we re seven to eight years into trump taking over the
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leading into this, things got really hot and really contentious between these two sides. and it would be probably, i think, honestly, a little confusing to people on the outside, really what the difference is, at the end of the day, between rana mcdaniel and hamit dylan and the my pillow ceo, but what did you see on the ground? it was an interesting battle lines forming between the three running mates. you had rana mcdaniel running for re-election. but you couldn t argue that she was the establishment figure. this is someone whose career had been made by donald trump. a lot of the people arguing against her included some pretty anti-trump figures. the support that came to back dylan was a mixture of people who both thought that mcdaniel was to blame for election losses, and some thought that she was not a credible figure going head to the 2024 primary. it was a kind of convolution of interest that led to the challenge against mcdaniel, but because this is a group that is
senate, and losing the white house. and yet, on friday, top rnc members re-elected her for an historic fourth term. nothing we do is is more important than making sure that joe biden is a one-term president. but in order to do that, we have to be unified. we have to be unified in that effort. mcdaniel easily beat a credible challenger by earning 111 votes to dylan s 51 votes. conspiracy theorist my pillow ceo mike lindell got four. former president trump declined to pick a favorite in this contentious race, which ended up becoming a proxy war between the grassroots and the gop establishment, but he seemed pleased with the results and he congratulated mcdaniel on her, quote, big win. now, you were out there in california for all of this as it went down.
chalian? is he trying to differentiate himself from trump by backing one of trump s former lawyers? i think it was a move where he thought, hey, if there is real payoff here at the end, and dylan somehow pulse puls us out, i ll look like the kingmaker. the downside isn t so bad. in fact, some people suggested to me, talking to them in the last week, perhaps he s seeding the ground a little bit that if he feels something is unfair in the adjudication of the process of 2024, he can point back to this kind of after moment. it s an opportunity to keep rana mcdaniel on the straight and narrow, perhaps, but it was a fascinating move, because to alex s point, ron desantis clearly wanted to embrace that agent of change mantel, as he s trying to straddle all of these pieces in the party and put together a potential presidential campaign. and it was just interesting that something as sort of inside as the rnc chair is where he thought he should start making that move.