Vice President Kamala Harris recently transferred $10 million to the DCCC. How much has former President Donald Trump given the NRCC? Not one red cent.
Trump also has yet to appear at a major fundraising event for the NRCC, leaving a huge, eight-figure hole in the committee’s budget. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee hasn’t given to the House GOP’s campaign arm all cycle.
As Republicans have grown increasingly alarmed by their massive cash gap with Democrats, securing a Trump fundraising event has become a top priority for House GOP leaders.
Senior House Republicans, including NRCC Chair Richard Hudson, have been privately lobbying Trump to speak at an NRCC event, according to multiple GOP sources. So far, they’ve had no luck.
Speaker Mike Johnson was planning to make an overture to Trump at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, we’re told. But that was the day an alleged attempted assassin was caught with a gun on Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla.
In the absence of a Trump fundraiser on the books, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik was enlisted to ask Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s vice presidential nominee, for his help, according to sources familiar with the matter, and Vance agreed. Stefanik was a special guest at a joint fundraiser with Vance last week that benefited Senate GOP candidates.
It’s overly simplistic to say that Trump is the cause of the NRCC’s fundraising issues. The GOP campaign committee has $70 million in the bank. By comparison, the DCCC has $87 million in the bank.
The DCCC also is routinely outraising the GOP. In August, the DCCC raised $22 million and the NRCC raked in just $9.7 million.
Trump, of course, has his own fundraising woes. Harris is routinely outraising the former president. Various Trump-related entities are helping pay his legal bills. In other words, money isn’t plentiful for any Republican.
But the NRCC has counted on Trump’s fundraising capacity in the past. Trump’s appearance at the 2018 NRCC spring dinner raked in $32 million. In 2019, Trump raised the NRCC $23 million. In 2021, Trump spoke at an NRCC dinner in Tampa, Fla., which raised $17 million.
Trump was slated to appear at the NRCC’s spring dinner this year, but he couldn’t attend because of his legal problems. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) took Trump’s place instead.
Sources told us that Trump’s operation has agreed to fundraise for the NRCC, but they haven’t found the time to make it happen. Soon it will be too late. There are just 42 days left until the election.
Scoop: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be at the Capitol on Thursday, we’re told.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is scheduled to host Zelensky for a bipartisan meeting with senators. Zelensky is in the United States this week for the U.N. General Assembly and will meet with President Joe Biden at the White House.
It’s still unclear at this time if Zelensky is meeting with House leaders as well.
Investigation news: Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent this letter to congressional Republicans, pushing back against claims he’s obstructed the GOP investigation into the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee has scheduled a hearing today on the chaotic U.S. pullout. Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) subpoenaed Blinken to appear.
But Blinken notes in his letter that he’ll be in New York City with President Joe Biden during the U.N. General Assembly. Blinken offered to have other top State Department officials testify. Blinken also pointed out that he appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee in May. McCaul has responded by threatening Blinken with a contempt resolution.
McCaul also is pushing a resolution to be voted on by the House later this week that “condemns” Biden, Blinken, Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other top administration officials over their handling of the Afghanistan endgame. Johnson recently awarded Congressional Gold Medals to the families of 13 U.S. servicemembers killed in the Aug. 26, 2021, bombing at the Kabul airport.
— Melanie Zanona, Jake Sherman, Andrew Desiderio and Max Cohen
