Dozens of Republicans who served under former President George W. Bush have announced they are leaving the party, dismayed with the many elected Republicans who will not disavow Trump after claims of election fraud ended with an insurrection at the Capitol.
These officials say they no longer recognize the party. Some have ended their membership, some are letting it lapse, and a few are registering as Independents.
“The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. I’d call it the cult of Trump,” said Jimmy Gurulé, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration.
Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White House’s communications office for six years, said roughly 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with it, from conversations he has been having. “The number is growing every day,” Purcell said….. “We have QAnon members of Congress. It’s appalling.”
A representative of W. Bush did not respond for comment. During Trump’s term, the former president made clear he had “retired” from politics.
“If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back,” Rosario Marin, a former Treasurer of the U.S. under Bush, told Reuters. “Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders.”
Story from Reuters.