Ex-RNC chair says Republican committee ‘remarkably different’ now

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Gov. Marc Racicot (R-Mont.) on Saturday said the committee is now “remarkably different” from when he served as its head.

“[T]he way that virtually everyone in the party has flocked to worship at the temple of Donald Trump, indicates to me that there’s something remarkably different today than what I experienced,” Racicot, who served as head of the RNC from 2001 to 2003, said in an interview on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.”

Racicot’s comments come as multiple outlets reported earlier this week that current chair Ronna McDaniel may leave the role following the South Carolina primary, with her reportedly facing pressure from other party figures who are displeased with the direction of the party and its finances as the 2024 election looms.

“[M]y guess would be that there’s some area of performance that Ronna did not quite measure up to, and that, I would guess would be, and this is only a guess, is that one, the [Democratic National Committee] has been outraising the RNC by a substantial measure,” Racicot said. 

Former President Trump said in an interview last Sunday that he expects to see “some changes” when it comes to the RNC chair.

“I think she did great when she ran Michigan for me. I think she did OK initially in the RNC,” Trump told Fox News, in reference to McDaniel. “I would say, right now, there will probably be some changes made.”

In the same interview, Trump was asked about Democrats outraising Republicans, to which he responded by saying that he “has a lot of money.”

“And the money that they get, people are not looking at the RNC. They want — they want changes. I — you have to understand, I have nothing to do with the RNC. I don’t — I’m separate,” Trump said.