Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel rejected criticism of her track record Saturday in an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
McDaniel appeared to deny that the RNC played a role in persuading American voters of the Republican message — instead merely acting as a “turnout machine” for those who already agree with Republican policies.
The responsibility for losing GOP campaigns, she suggested, belonged with the candidates and their advisers.
McDaniel, the RNC’s chairwoman since 2017, was responding to fierce criticism from national Republicans such as presidential nomination contender Vivek Ramaswamy.
“We’re not the messengers. We don’t create the messages for the campaigns,” McDaniel told Ingraham.
“Those are the consultants who get very well paid.”
Ingraham cited reports that the RNC had failed to provide financial assistance to Republican candidates in Virginia’s legislative election.
“These were state House and Senate races,” McDaniel said. “The RNC is a federal committee.”
However, in October, National Review reported that Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Rich Anderson had met with RNC officials to “request that the party pour money into the state to help Governor Glenn Youngkin maintain the party’s narrow grip on the house of delegates and flip the state senate.”
The Democratic National Committee spent more than $1 million in Virginia races, National Review reported.
At one point, in an apparent shot at Ramaswamy and his supporters, McDaniel described her critics as a Twitter mob.
“I mean, come on,” she said, visibly frustrated.
“Can you just — These are people who come after me all the time, they’re on Twitter, they’re all the time.”
“Let’s see their results. What did they do in Virginia? How much money did they give?”
At Wednesday’s presidential primary debate in Miami, Ramaswamy went so far as to offer McDaniel his own debate speaking time for the purpose of announcing her own resignation.
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy ripped the Republican National Committee (RNC) for picking NBC News as Wednesday’s debate moderators and called for committee chair Ronna McDaniel’s resignation. pic.twitter.com/CBOOXSgMv8
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 9, 2023
As chairwoman of the RNC, McDaniel has presided over a series of disappointing results for the GOP, including the 2022 midterm elections that saw Republicans gain fewer than expected seats in the House and a failure to take the Senate.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.