>>22198891
>Trump is being a cock
>Mr. Roy replied, “I don’t give a crap what some influencers say on Twitter.”
how quickly people forget
Defying Trump, G.O.P. Congressmen Hit the Road for DeSantis
A pair of idiosyncratic, ultraconservative House Republicans are risking the ire of the former president and his supporters to try to bolster the Florida governor.
Representatives Chip Roy, left, and Thomas Massie sit behind Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is speaking into a microphone.
Representatives Chip Roy, left, and Thomas Massie in Iowa with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. They are two of just five sitting members of Congress who have endorsed Mr. DeSantis.Credit…Jordan Gale for The New York Times
Catie Edmondson
By Catie Edmondson
Catie Edmondson, who covers Congress, reported from campaign stops in Cedar Rapids, Ankeny and Grimes, Iowa.
Jan. 9, 2024
Most House Republicans operate under an unspoken but ironclad rule: Do whatever you can to avoid provoking the wrath of former President Donald J. Trump.
But on a recent weekend here in Iowa, just days before the state’s first-in-the-nation nominating contest, two of Congress’s staunchest conservatives were doing just that as they crisscrossed the state with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to make the case for a different party standard-bearer.
At stop after stop on a string of frigid, gray days, Representatives Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky packed into crowded sports bars and coffee shops, casting Mr. DeSantis as a leader with a proven track record of conservative victories. In doing so, they issued a surprisingly blunt review of what they argued were a string of policy failures by the former president — including his inability to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, to complete a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and to rein in the skyrocketing national debt — and an implicit critique of his character.
“The primary reason that I’m supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis for president is that I want my son and my daughter to be able to look up to the occupant of the Oval Office,” Mr. Roy told a packed room of caucusgoers at a sports bar in Ankeny. “Someone they can emulate. Someone that you would be proud to have them follow and look to as a leader.”
Mr. Roy and Mr. Massie have always cut singular figures in Congress. Mr. Roy, a former chief of staff to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, has emerged as arguably the most influential conservative voice on policy in the House G.O.P. conference. Mr. Massie, a libertarian who is by turns thoughtful and mischievous, forced Congress to return to Washington to take a recorded vote on the $2 trillion stimulus measure at the height of the pandemic.
But their commitment to break with a vast majority of their colleagues — including the entire House Republican leadership — and campaign for Mr. DeSantis even as he lags badly in polling behind Mr. Trump is perhaps one of their most fraught political moves yet.
Despite the possible political risks, they have remained defiant, not only criticizing Mr. Trump’s record — even throwing in an impersonation or two of the famously thin-skinned Republican front-runner — but also openly lamenting the choices of their Republican colleagues who have endorsed him.
“I would say a good number of the people who have endorsed Trump in Congress have done it because they genuinely want him to be the president and they prefer him,” Mr. Massie said in an interview before an event with Mr. DeSantis at a sports bar in Grimes. “But a majority of them are scared of their own constituents. Not necessarily scared of Trump, but that he would rile up their constituents and that they might lose a primary. And that is disappointing to me.”
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People bowing their heads at a table that holds drinks and DeSantis campaign material.
Supporters of Mr. DeSantis during a prayer at a campaign rally in Grimes, Iowa.Credit…Jordan Gale for The New York Times
“It is a political risk,” Mr. Massie conceded of his backing for Mr. DeSantis, noting that two primary opponents had recently filed to challenge him.
He and Mr. Roy are two of just five sitting members of Congress, including Representative Bob Good of Virginia, the newly elected chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who have endorsed the Florida governor. As of last week, every House G.O.P. leader had lined up behind Mr. Trump.
Asked about the potential political risks of campaigning against Mr. Trump,Mr. Roy replied, “I don’t give a crap what some influencers say on Twitter.”