.@MichaelSteele: There's got to be a 'Great Awakening' for the GOP after this election https://t.co/WV1iBw3EkQ
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) October 24, 2016
The Republican Party will need a “great awakening” after the presidential election, regardless of whether or not GOP nominee Donald Trump wins the White House, a former party chairman said early Monday.
{mosads}”The reality of it is when this race is over, there’s going to be a great upheaval,” said former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
He said Trump supporters will likely be upset with Republican leaders and lawmakers who didn’t fully “support the nominee.”
“The ‘Never Trump’ people are going to fight like hell to pull the party back together, while [Trump supporters] are going to try to pull the party apart,” he said.
“There’s got to be a great awakening and ‘coming to Jesus’ moment for the party after this election, but that would have been the case if Donald Trump had won,” Steele said.
He said there would still be Republicans who won’t support Trump if he wins.
“You still would have had those forces, if he wins, who don’t want him or don’t see him as a viable representative of the party, still dealing with the internal struggle of who we are as Republicans,” Steele said.
“Those who don’t want to consider themselves ‘Trump Republicans,’ if you will, will be very much at odds with that Trump administration.”
Steele, who served as the party’s chairman from 2009 to 2011, said last week he would not vote for Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I was damn near puking during the debates,” he said.