Ex-RNC Chair Says He Appreciates Republicans for Kamala Harris Effort

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele told Rich Logis, Florida’s “Republicans for Harris” co-chair, on Saturday that he appreciates the group’s effort in repudiating former President Donald Trump.
Steele, co-host of MSNBC’s The Weekend and a Trump critic, led a panel discussion of conservatives who have abandoned the Republican Party since Trump’s rise. The panel also included Tara Setmayer, a former GOP campaign adviser, who said the GOP “needs to burn to the ground and start anew.”
Setmayer continued: “If something comes out of the ashes, I will be the first one there, someone right at the center to help build it up, because we need to be able to have a difference in opinions on policy.”
At the end of the discussion, Steele turned it over to Logis, who has previously said he has “acknowledged his error” in supporting Trump. The 47-year-old businessman boasted, “This is an opportunity to move away from Donald Trump and to ensure that we’re victorious in November. If we have the type of turnout I know we’re capable of, I know there can be a historic repudiation of the Republican Party in November.”
Steele, who was chair of the RNC from 2009-2011, said, “Rich Logis, I appreciate that effort, man,” and thanked Setmayer for her appearance.
When reached for comment on Saturday, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung took a shot at the MSNBC panel and seemed to accuse the network of pandering to Democrats, mockingly calling the cable news channel “MSDNC.”
“MSDNC is where irrelevant Never Trumpers sit around in a circle and spew garbage to make themselves feel better about their miserable existence devoid of joy,” Cheung told Newsweek in an email.
Vice President Kamala Harris has quickly established herself as the Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the race on July 21 and endorsed Harris. On Thursday at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), she formally accepted her party’s nomination for president. She has proceeded to poll ahead of Trump, the Republican nominee, in more than a dozen surveys and for a time became favorite to win November’s election with a number of leading bookmakers.
However, over the past few days Harris has suffered a number of blows, and on Thursday bookmakers Paddypower, Betfair, William Hill and 888.sport were once again offering more favorable odds of Trump winning the presidency than her.
Newsweek emailed the Harris campaign Saturday morning for comment.
Earlier this month, the “Harris for President” campaign announced “Republicans for Harris,” a program designed to “further outreach efforts to the millions of Republican voters who continued to reject the chaos, division, and violence of Donald Trump and his Project 2025 agenda.”
Developed by right-wing policy group The Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 proposes to install Republican loyalists at every level of federal departments if Trump is reelected in November.
Last month, Trump denied his involvement with Project 2025 in a social media post.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
Currently, there are dozens of current or former Republican figures, some of which now identify with a different party, who have already endorsed the vice president.
Saturday’s MSNBC panel comes after the DNC featured several prominent Republicans, and even a top ex-Trump official, who all showed up in Chicago to back Harris’ presidential bid.
Republican political commentator Ana Navarro served as the celebrity host of the convention’s second day on Tuesday. In a passionate speech, Navarro, a vocal Trump critic, compared the former president to “communist dictators” including Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Cuba’s Castro brothers and Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.
Also in attendance was former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who slammed her former boss on the stage, and John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Arizona.
“Unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand at that podium and lie,” Grisham said of Trump. “Now here I am behind a podium advocating for a Democrat, and that’s because I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people, and she has my vote.”
Giles began his speech by “confessing” that he is a lifelong Republican but, to cheers, he announced that, “I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican Party,” which he said had become “the cult of Donald Trump.”
Former GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger, former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan and former Trump aide Olivia Troye also took the stage in Chicago in support of Harris.
“The Republican Party is no longer conservative. It has switched its allegiance from the principles that gave it purpose to a man whose only purpose is himself,” Kinzinger said during his DNC speech. “Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong. He is a small man pretending to be big. He’s a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He’s a perpetrator who can’t stop playing the victim.”
Update 8/24/24, 3:31 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Trump’s spokesperson.