Michael Whatley, an ally of Donald J. Trump who took over the Republican Nationwide Committee final week, celebrated a collection of main modifications on the committee in a memo on Thursday and declared that the social gathering can be “a united operation, and a united entrance” with Mr. Trump’s presidential marketing campaign.
Mr. Whatley was unanimously elected on Friday because the committee’s chair, together with Lara Trump, the previous president’s daughter-in-law, as his co-chair. A whirlwind of modifications quickly adopted, remaking a lot of the social gathering equipment from high to backside.
On Monday, the brand new management staff gutted the committee, severing ties with greater than 60 officers, together with senior employees members. On Tuesday, Christina Bobb, a self-described 2020 election denier and conspiracy theorist on Mr. Trump’s authorized staff, mentioned she was becoming a member of as senior counsel for election integrity.
“I’m very happy to say that my first week because the chairman of the Republican Nationwide Committee has been a terrific week,” Mr. Whatley started the memo, which was despatched out to the membership of the R.N.C., and obtained by The New York Occasions.
Mr. Whatley additionally introduced that the R.N.C. “is merging operations with the Trump marketing campaign,” including that James Blair, a Trump marketing campaign aide, would put on two hats, because the political director for each the committee and the Trump marketing campaign.
That announcement formalized a merger that had been taking part in out since Monday, when it was reported that a lot of the social gathering’s operations can be relocated to Palm Seaside, Fla., the bottom of operations for the Trump marketing campaign.
Charlie Spies, a Republican lawyer and a chief fund-raiser for Mitt Romney throughout his 2012 presidential marketing campaign, may also take over because the R.N.C.’s chief counsel, in keeping with the memo.
As some Republicans have expressed issues that Mr. Trump would use committee cash to pay his authorized payments, Mr. Whatley mentioned the R.N.C. wanted “to make it possible for each penny of each greenback is spent in direction of one factor: successful. Successful Home seats, successful Senate seats, and successful the presidency.” Earlier than taking up as co-chair, Ms. Trump had mentioned she can be open to the thought of the committee paying Mr. Trump’s authorized payments.
Mr. Whatley’s memo additionally set a objective of constructing “the best election integrity program that has ever existed to safeguard our elections.” Ms. Bobb, who’s now heading that effort, has for years relentlessly promoted false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump, first as a bunch on the far-right One America Information Community and persevering with after she grew to become a lawyer for Mr. Trump. Invoice McGinley, who served as cupboard secretary in the course of the Trump administration, may also be part of the staff as exterior counsel for election integrity.
One of many objectives for the election integrity staff, in keeping with Mr. Whatley’s memo, can be an “aggressive, proactive effort to make sure that it will likely be straightforward to vote and arduous to cheat.” The memo mentions difficult a number of the voting guidelines that have been instituted for the 2020 election, suggesting that the nationwide social gathering might add to conservative efforts to tighten voting legal guidelines, in addition to efforts by Trump allies to problem giant numbers of voter registrations in crucial battleground states, forward of the 2024 election.
The R.N.C. sued Michigan on Wednesday to make cuts to the state’s voter rolls, arguing that they’re “bloated with ineligible voters.” Mr. Whatley highlighted that lawsuit within the memo, and mentioned “many extra” are coming.
