The RNC’s provocative response to its censure critics

A few hours later, the RNC itself drove home that point — in remarkable terms.

“Outside of the D.C. bubble, our grass roots are very supportive of the decision to hold Cheney and Kinzinger accountable,” the RNC’s communications director, Danielle Alvarez, told The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey and Felicia Sonmez.

The RNC said Wednesday morning that the statement was intended for other critics and noted that the question to which it was responding was about the grass roots.

“Mainstream media is doing what it does best — being dishonest,” Alvarez said in a written statement. “Outside of DC, where grassroots Americans live that the RNC represents, people are more concerned about Joe Biden and Democrats’ failed policies burying them.”

But it can’t help but have also hit a bunch of the party’s leaders with not-so-friendly fire. Among the Republicans who have criticized the censures are both the Nos. 1 and 2 Senate Republicans — McConnell and John Thune (S.D.) — as well as a contender to be the next Senate GOP leader, John Cornyn (Tex.). Those folks are very much in the “D.C. bubble,” and they aren’t supportive of the decision to censure Cheney and Kinzinger — or at least how it was handled.

McConnell stated flatly Tuesday that policing members who hold different views is “not the job of the RNC.”

Even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the would-be speaker of the House come 2023, has repeatedly dodged questions about whether he supports the censures — quite literally fleeing them in the halls of Congress — while defending the “legitimate political discourse” language.

It’s turned into a striking rift between the leaders of a party and the party apparatus that is supposed to support them. And it’s increasingly looking as though the party might lean into siding with the base.

Even when the resolution was making its way through the RNC last week, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and top Trump ally David Bossie, who spearheaded the effort, emphasized this was something that flowed up from the base.

“This isn’t a top-down situation,” McDaniel said at the time. “The members have shown tremendous support for this.”

The quote was about whether former president Donald Trump pushed for the censures, but it might as well have been about McConnell et al.

For now, the situation prevents some rather difficult choices moving forward for McConnell and those same party leaders.

The RNC is indeed right that what it has done is very much in line with what the party’s base wants. A strong majority of Republicans, after all, wrongly believe Donald Trump somehow won the 2020 election. A Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday — even as this was all blowing up — showed 65 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning voters say too much attention has been paid to Jan. 6. And 8 in 10 said they had little or no confidence that the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation would be fair and reasonable.

That’s decidedly not where McConnell is. He has made a point to lend the committee legitimacy, saying that “what they are seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.” He also reinforced in his comments Tuesday that Joe Biden’s win was legitimately certified and that Jan. 6 was indeed a violent “insurrection” — something with which 1 in 5 Republicans agree.

What happens if the party follows through on the sentiment expressed in its statement — that it will align with the base in a way that pits it against a “D.C. bubble” which includes its own highest-ranking leaders? McConnell is already the subject of a thus-far-unsuccessful Trump effort to rally Republicans to unseat him as the Senate’s GOP leader.

For now, the reaction to the RNC’s provocative comment is pretty muted. One county GOP in McConnell’s home state hit back at the RNC’s “D.C. bubble” statement on Wednesday morning.

“Here in flyover country, we stand with @LeaderMcConnell,” the Warren County GOP tweeted, while tagging the RNC spokeswoman. “Our role is to support our Republican elected officials, not censure them when we disagree. The RNC should take note.”

But McConnell’s office on Wednesday morning declined to comment on the RNC’s quote.

Watch this space. It will say a lot about just who wields power in today’s GOP — and how that power will be used.