When former President Donald Trump promised retribution, he apparently didn’t just mean Democrats.
This week his co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, fired off a verbal warning shot against one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress: Rep. Bob Good, R-Campbell County.
Good, who chairs the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, has called Trump the best president of his lifetime and has said he’d happily support Trump if he were the Republican nominee. So how could Trump possibly be unhappy with that?
Here’s how: Good hasn’t endorsed Trump for the Republican nomination. Instead, he’s endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying that he felt DeSantis had the best chance of winning in November and would be able to serve two terms while Trump would only be able to serve one.
Both of those seem very practical considerations to me — I’m baffled why more Republicans aren’t taking into account the difficulties ahead for Trump as opposed to the ease with which another nominee might dispatch a weakened Joe Biden. For Trump’s inner circle, though, Good’s endorsement of DeSantis is akin to heresy and heretics must be hounded either into submission — or forced retirement.
LaCivita told Cardinal’s Markus Schmidt in a story published Wednesday: “Bob Good won’t be electable when we get done with him.”
That’s a remarkable declaration, one that rocketed through conservative news media and political observers at large. “Bob Good not concerned about Trump campaign threats to oust him from office,” headlined The Washington Times, quoting the congressman saying “I don’t think about it.”
Perhaps he should, suggests longtime University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato. “I’ve never known Chris LaCivita to make an empty threat,” Sabato posted on Twitter/X. “Sounds like all-out GOP war. Chris won a Purple Heart in the Persian Gulf war. Just sayin’.”
Presidential campaign managers don’t just go rogue one day, so we should assume that this is an intentional signal to target Good. It comes as CNN reports that in the wake of Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucuses, the former president “has been pressing members of Congress to fall in line and offer their endorsement in a bid to show a wave of support on his march to the nomination.”
The conservative talk show host Erick Erickson was less circumspect when he retweeted Cardinal’s story with the LaCivita quote: “The purges have begun.”
Conveniently for Trump, Good has a primary challenger, just not one we would have expected. Given how far to the right Good is, I’d have expected a more center-right challenger like he had for the nomination two years ago. Instead, his challenger this time is trying to run even further to the right, claiming that Good is a “never Trumper” and even a “RINO” — a conservative epithet for Republican In Name Only.
Neither of those charges rings true to my ears — you can say many things about Good but calling him a RINO distorts the common meaning of that phrase to the point of being meaningless. Nonetheless, Good’s primary challenger, state Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland County, has said just that. Not once, not twice, but many times. Here are some samples from recent email blasts from McGuire: “Voters in Virginia’s 5th District clearly don’t want a Never Trump RINO like Bob Good.” “My opponent, Bob Good, is working against and disparaging Donald Trump, which is very dangerous for the future of America.” “My Never Trumper opponent Bob Good and his never Trumper Facebook trolls continue to disparage Trump and fellow MAGA Patriots.”
In a normal nomination contest, it’s relatively easy to figure things out. Candidates tend to fall into certain “lanes” — oh, she’s the conservative candidate, he’s the more moderate candidate; he’s the establishment candidate, she’s the insurgent. That sort of thing. This one is very different because both candidates spring from the same ideological well. And instead of some issue to separate them — a vote on some controversial bill — we have the question of whether the head of the House’s most conservative caucus is sufficiently loyal to Trump.
This is clearly not a normal nomination contest.
If it were, I’d say that on the surface I see no evidence that Good is in any jeopardy. He easily fended off a more moderate challenger last time, although that was in the cozy confines of a party convention and not the broader electorate of a Republican primary that the law effectively mandates now. If Good were being challenged from the center-right, I’d still give him the advantage but would be curious what the “silent majority” of Republicans in the 5th District think — although 5th District Republicans tend to be a pretty conservative lot. With Good being challenged from his right over his DeSantis endorsement — man, I have no idea. Good certainly seems popular with 5th District Republicans — with some notable exceptions in Lynchburg, which I’ve written about before — but so is Trump. How are those 5th District Republicans going to respond if they have to choose between Good and a challenger who says Good is anti-Trump? (I don’t see Good as anti-Trump; I just see him as being for someone else but that’s a nuance that McGuire would like us to overlook.)
On the same day that LaCivita’s comments about Good made the rounds, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, also went after the 5th District congressman. She’s flamed against Good before on Twitter/X, so I don’t know if her post Wednesday was a reaction to those comments or some coordinated effort, or just her random musings. In any case, here’s what she had to say about a fellow Republican:
The House Freedom Caucus board is filled with Never Trumpers led by their new chairman angry disloyal MAGA traitor Bob Good. HFC and their donors are victims of a hostile takeover by Never Trumpers and that’s going to be a disaster for Pres Trump’s next administration. Bob Good ran on MAGA and Trump’s endorsement in 2020 AND 2022 and now endorses DeSantis and says “Trump is unelectable.” Well Trump just proved Bob Good wrong by DOMINATING in Iowa!! In spite of Bob Good ousting Kevin McCarthy, Bob Good gladly took millions of dollars from McCarthy to get elected and would hate for people to know that. President Trump is going to win in 24, and he needs loyal America First warriors NOT Congressmen on a power trip who will stab him in the back.
I’m not sure Good ever said that Trump was “unelectable,” but did tell someone in Louisa County last year in a moment caught on video that Trump “might be the only person that can lose to Joe Biden.” Again, nuance, something that doesn’t do well on social media.
What others are saying:
“Bob Good is a talentless DeSantis and Cuccinelli sock puppet controlled by the political hacks and consultants of Virginia’s 5th distict. John McGuire is a sock puppet for Trump so now you have sock puppet on sock puppet violence.” — former Rep. Denver Riggleman, who lost the Republican nomination to Good in 2020, as quoted by Axios
“President Trump more than likely is going to support his opponent and he’s still supporting DeSantis who is going to lose horrifically — the primary is already over. God bless him. Bob Good is following in this in the same footsteps as Eric Cantor.” — Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, as quoted in Axios.
“The Ron DeSantis endorsement is killing his re-election bid. Get out now Bob! Endorse Trump.” — conservative radio talk show host John Fredericks (and Virginia chairman of Trump’s campaigns in 2016 and 2020) on Twitter/X
“Not sure how it’s ‘America First’ to attack the more conservative, electable candidate as revenge over an endorsement.” — conservative radio and TV host Dana Loesch on Twitter/X
Will Trump supporters in the 5th ignore all this chatter, dismiss McGuire as an opportunist and stick with Good, who they know is quite conservative? Or will those Trump supporters take this comment from the Trump high command as a sign that Trump wants a congressman more loyal to him and abandon Good for the challenger McGuire, who is so pro-Trump that he skipped a day in the General Assembly to go work the Iowa caucuses for Trump? Right now, we don’t know. There are some other things we don’t know, either: Will any Republicans start to have second thoughts about a presidential nominee who demands such unfailing loyalty? Will the prospect of a Good-McGuire contest prompt a center-right candidate to enter in hopes of winning a three-way race? And what effect, if any, will this have on Democrats? While this is a Republican district — Good won it with 57% two years ago — will some Democrat be inspired to run in hopes that all this Republican infighting causes some voters to skip the congressional line in November?
So far, all these attacks are taking place online. Will they ever jump — like a pathogen jumping species — into the body politic of 5th District Republicans? That’s what we should look for: signs that any of this is starting to have any effect on the ground. So far, it’s notable that Trump hasn’t officially endorsed McGuire over Good. Will that change? What if it did? What if Trump actually came to Virginia; that would really force the question. He’ll have plenty of opportunities: Early voting in Virginia’s presidential primary begins Friday; the formal primary day is March 5. One complicating factor for both Good and McGuire: That’s not the day of their primary. That’s not until June 18, which either a) gives Good plenty of time to get behind Trump if by then DeSantis drops out and Trump is the clear nominee, or b) gives McGuire plenty of time to try to get Trump into Virginia to campaign for him. Of course, it also creates plenty of time for Trump to implode in one of the many criminal indictments he’s facing.
Whoever runs the Twitter account Virginia Political Memes may have had the most astute observation on all this drama: “This isn’t panning out to be a coronation for McGuire, it’s aiming to be a crucifixion of Good.”
