Republicans Finally Plan 2024 Platform—With Most Troubling Architect
The Republican National Committee has decided to draft a 2024 party platform, and it’s hired a leader of the “Stop the Steal” election-denier movement to help. On May 15, Ed Martin, a former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, was hired to serve as the deputy policy director of the platform committee, reported NBC News. Martin is well known for supporting Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, even giving a speech in Washington, D.C., the day before the January 6 Capitol riots in 2021 to rally Trump’s supporters. “No matter what happens tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after, we still need to be in the fight. There’s no summer soldiers and springtime patriots here. There’s the die-hard true Americans,” Martin said in that speech. “We start today, go through tomorrow and every day till we have a last breath and go home to the Lord because we will stop the steal.”On January 6 itself, he was present on the Capitol grounds, posting on social media the entire time and claiming that the crowd was “rowdy” but otherwise fine, even after rioters had already breached the Capitol building. “I’m at the Capitol right now,” Martin posted on Twitter. “Rowdy crowd but nothing out of hand. Ignore the #FakeNews.”“Like Mardi Gras in DC today: love, faith and joy,” Martin tweeted minutes later. Martin would later be subpoenaed by the House January 6 committee, which said it had evidence that he helped plan the rally preceding the riots and paid some of the costs for the rally’s vendors. Martin didn’t show up to a deposition with the committee, though. He later spread conspiracy theories about the riots, claiming that government operatives were responsible, and attended events with other election deniers such as Michael Flynn and Ali Alexander. The GOP is drafting a party platform for the first time in eight years, after deciding in 2020 that it would recycle 2016’s platform and “continue to enthusiastically support the president’s America-first agenda,” referring to Trump. Martin’s appointment suggests that 2024’s platform will include challenging the integrity of any election that Republicans lose. And he’s not the first election denier the RNC has hired since Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump took over as the committee’s co-chair. Lawyer Christina Bobb, who faces charges in Arizona for helping to overturn the state’s election results, was tapped to head the committee’s “election integrity” division.
The Republican National Committee has decided to draft a 2024 party platform, and it’s hired a leader of the “Stop the Steal” election-denier movement to help.
On May 15, Ed Martin, a former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, was hired to serve as the deputy policy director of the platform committee, reported NBC News. Martin is well known for supporting Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, even giving a speech in Washington, D.C., the day before the January 6 Capitol riots in 2021 to rally Trump’s supporters.
“No matter what happens tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after, we still need to be in the fight. There’s no summer soldiers and springtime patriots here. There’s the die-hard true Americans,” Martin said in that speech. “We start today, go through tomorrow and every day till we have a last breath and go home to the Lord because we will stop the steal.”
On January 6 itself, he was present on the Capitol grounds, posting on social media the entire time and claiming that the crowd was “rowdy” but otherwise fine, even after rioters had already breached the Capitol building.
“I’m at the Capitol right now,” Martin posted on Twitter. “Rowdy crowd but nothing out of hand. Ignore the #FakeNews.”
“Like Mardi Gras in DC today: love, faith and joy,” Martin tweeted minutes later.
Martin would later be subpoenaed by the House January 6 committee, which said it had evidence that he helped plan the rally preceding the riots and paid some of the costs for the rally’s vendors. Martin didn’t show up to a deposition with the committee, though. He later spread conspiracy theories about the riots, claiming that government operatives were responsible, and attended events with other election deniers such as Michael Flynn and Ali Alexander.
The GOP is drafting a party platform for the first time in eight years, after deciding in 2020 that it would recycle 2016’s platform and “continue to enthusiastically support the president’s America-first agenda,” referring to Trump. Martin’s appointment suggests that 2024’s platform will include challenging the integrity of any election that Republicans lose. And he’s not the first election denier the RNC has hired since Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump took over as the committee’s co-chair. Lawyer Christina Bobb, who faces charges in Arizona for helping to overturn the state’s election results, was tapped to head the committee’s “election integrity” division.
