Former Romney strategist: GOP is ‘lost,’ has become ‘autocratic party’

GOP strategist Stuart Stevens on Wednesday said in an interview that the Republican Party is “pretty lost,” a day after Rep. Liz Cheney lost her Republican primary race in Wyoming to a challenger endorsed by former President Trump.

In an appearance on CNN’s “New Day,” Stevens said Cheney was “drummed out of the Republican Party” and that her loss had “nothing to do with policy.”

“She supported Trump’s policy, a conservative policy, pretty much across the line, to the extent there was a coherent policy. I think it’s a big mistake if we make this too much about Trump, because really this is about the complete abandonment of a Republican Party, a major political party and one of the two major political parties in America, abandoning the concept of what it means to operate within a democratic system,” he added.

According to Stuart, members of the GOP who did not support Trump have “pretty much have been punished by the party.”

Cheney was one of the House Republicans who voted last year to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection

He added that many GOP voters think President Biden is an “occupier” and was “not legally elected.”

“If Donald Trump runs against Biden, or whoever will be the nominee for the Republicans, DeSantis runs against him, whomever, they’re not going to be running in a normal race between two political parties with different philosophies. It will be a race to remove an occupier in the office,” he added.

According to Stuart, Americans should should not underestimate what the Republicans are trying to do.

“Jan. 6 was not just an isolated event. It wasn’t some rave. It is part of a calculated, very patient effort by Republicans to change the way that we vote in America, change the way that we count votes in America, and they are doing that because they know that as America changes, they are losing a majority support of Americans and they have to do something. It has become an autocratic party,” he said.

He added that Cheney is also “reminding Americans but particularly reminding the Republican Party what it is to be an American.”

“To be an American you have to exist in a system in which you believe both sides can have merit. And if the other side wins, you are willing to lose. That’s the essence of it. And that’s the difference between us in what happens in Russia, us and what is now happening in Hungary,” he added.