WASHINGTON D.C. — Minutes after calling for Republican unity Sunday, former President Donald Trump went back on the offensive against some Republican lawmakers. Naming names of those who voted to impeach him, telling supporters, “get rid of ‘em all.”
U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Grand Rapids and Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph were among the 17.
“I think [Trump] built a very good low-dollar fundraising base and there's more money to be made there and there's a lot of people who build livelihoods off of that fundraising and they will continue to do it. This is a fundraising effort, let's be very clear,” Meijer said about Trump’s CPAC address.
Meijer telling FOX 17 he wants the party to move past Trump and if he is the nominee come 2024, it will mean “defeat” for the GOP.
‘I would rather we have a party that's able to win competitive elections. I'd rather we have a party that's able to put forward solutions based on conservative principles. A party that's a party of ideas, and frankly what we've gotten over the past four years has been the loss of the House, the loss of the White House and the loss of the Senate, and that was all before January 6,” Meijer said.
A similar sentiment coming from the office of Congressman Fred Upton.
“In our district, Fred won by 16 points. Trump won by 4. Fred's margin of victory was three times larger than Trump's. The numbers speak for themselves. So if Republicans want to win the House back in 2022, we can't look in the rearview mirror. We need to look through the front windshield and keep moving forward. You achieve victory by adding to your coalition, not subtracting. It's simple math,” Upton’s Communication Director Josh Paciorek said.
One area Republicans appear to be unified on, is in their opposition to the latest $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill passed by House Democrats a few days ago.
Some calling it a partisan wish-list that isn’t targeted towards the pandemic.
“I think it's more effective to think of this as a means through which the Biden Administration is trying to hit their 100- day mark, a set a policy objectives, rather than anything that's actually tied to the pandemic.” Meijer said.
If the bill gets kicked back to the House, Meijer plans to introduce his own plan, cleverly branded “$DOGE,” an homage to the meme turned cryptocurrency.
“Direct dollars Over Government Excess,” Meijer explained.
The $DOGE plan has been scored by the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget. $DOGE includes all urgent essentials: vaccines, testing, PPE, school reopening, unemployment insurance, etc. It gives those who need it $2400 not $1400. And *still* saves $1 trillion! (5/6) pic.twitter.com/J8c6jkmjiw
— Rep. Peter Meijer (@RepMeijer) February 27, 2021
The freshman's plan would cut the cost of stimulus in roughly half, but it would increase stimulus checks to $2400, people making less than $50,000 a year would qualify.
“I essentially took the bipartisan plan that was developed by Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine and presented to President Biden, that was 687 Billion.” Meijer said.
“I engaged with some Democratic colleagues and said ‘hey what needs to be in a COVID package for it to be acceptable on your side of the aisle? What are some of the must pass items? Factored plenty of those in and then said okay well, how do we get this to a point where we give the direct relief to people who really need it in this country.”
“Getting through the pandemic is the most pressing issue that we're dealing with right now,” Meijer added.
The Senate is set to take up the COVID relief bill later this week, House Democrats are calling on their colleagues for a quick vote.
