former president. reporter: in georgia, trump endorsing david perdue for governor as a way to get back at republican governor brian kemp for not doing enough to undermine the will of georgia voters and turn the 2020 election for trump. and your r.h.i.n.o. governor brian kemp. reporter: attempting to stack the party with loyalists even if those candidates come with controversy. in pennsylvania, trump endorsing former army captain sean parnell. he s a real hero, a real tough guy and he ll never let you down. reporter: parnell went on to suspend his campaign in november after a messy and contentious custody battle. in the georgia senate race, trump recruiting and endorsing political newcomer herschel walker. herschel is not only a georgia hero, he is an american
this extraordinary morphing of the republican party into essentially a single-issue party, the issue being donald trump, which is more like a cult of personality than it is like a modern american political party. and, david, do you think the january 6th committee s plan to hold hearings at some point this year, do you think that could at all possibly refocus attention on the victims of that day? well, look, david is right to be tactical about that. unfortunately, there s been lots of evidence over the last year that s come out, extraordinary dramatic footage, the committee already did have a hearing to try to spotlight what happened. but it really hasn t changed the numbers because you re dealing with such a polarized world in which republicans, the vast majority of them who still identify themselves as republicans basically have made this a new article of faith. and donald trump is going to be out there stoking it. and, david, donald trump
i think there was sort of a hope, an expectation even among many republicans on january 7th of last year that the events would result in sort of the purging of the party. and not only has that not happened, david made the point, i think 71% in a poll out just now that 71% of republicans actually believe joe biden was not the legitimately elected president. that s more republicans than believed the big lie than even one year ago. and mike pence, you know, to the point of this tweet, mike pence stood up to donald trump and said, i don t have a constitutional option to do what you want me to do and to deny the legitimate results of the 2020 election. he stood up to trump that day, but he spent most of the days since ducking and weaving and bobbing to avoid taking responsibility for that action and acting as though it was, you know, basically never really happened. and i think that just speaks to
us to blame donald trump and some hacks in congress for what was happening from 2017 to 2020. harder to do that when you have anybody that speaks out against the conspiracy theories, getting censored, getting sanctioned by the republican party. you have, of course, liz cheney, who is kicked out of leadership for telling the truth about what happened on january the 6th. they literally a modern american political party kicked somebody out of leadership for condemning an insurrection against a united states government. let me just say that again. i ll slow that one down for a second. a political party in america this year, in 2021, kicked out a member of leadership for telling the truth about an insurrection against the united states of america.
i don t think they wrote the check yet. this is a manifestation of every fear of a voter that is likely to support trump would have about an immigrant invasion as trump has put it himself, as conservative media pundits have put it. this is a story that has popped more than anything i ve ever seen in the last few weeks of a race. i remember being out on the road in nebraska three weeks ago at a republican dinner, and i pay pretty close attention to conservative media. first question to the congressman running, what are you going to do about the caravan? i hadn t really heard about the caravan yet, but to me this is where it started. to this day it will be the defining issue for republicans in this race, good or bad. it s very revealing about the lengths to which a modern american political party will go to stir paranoia and fear among its base. i do want to read you