Trump Managed to ‘Exact Revenge’ On Indiana Republicans Who Refused His Gerrymander, Reports Dana Bash

CNN’s Dana Bash reported on Wednesday that President Donald Trump managed to “exact revenge” on Republican lawmakers in Indiana who did not support a redistricting effort backed by him.

“It’s President Trump’s party, and he’ll exact revenge if he wants to. That’s really the main takeaway from last night’s Indiana Republican primaries,” Bash said on Inside Politics on Wednesday, pulling up the results from the races.

Among the Republican lawmakers who voted against the Trump-backed redistricting effort, five of them (Dan Dernulc, Linda Rogers, Travis Holdman, Jim Buck, Greg Walker) lost their primaries against Trump-backed candidates. One defiant lawmaker also won (Greg Goode), and another race remains too close to call (Spencer Deery).

“Five of the seven GOP state senators the president pushed to oust lost their seats last night. One survived, and one is still too close to call. So what does this mean for the president’s grip on the GOP?” Bash asked.

She then shared a statement from James Blair, political advisor to the president, who said no one should be surprised by the results. Blair pushed for Republicans to get in line behind Trump and set their feelings aside on certain issues.

“Sometimes you can vote your feelings, but sometimes you need to vote with the party as the elected party leader, the president gets to decide which vote is which, and he is always clear and up front about it. Nobody should be surprised about any of this,” Blair said.

New York Times White House correspondent and CNN contributor Zolan Kanno-Youngs called Indiana an “outlier” in GOP-backed redistricting efforts.

“They stood out and the president was clear that he was going to focus on challenging those representatives when it came to this election,” he said. “And he put that focus on the primary, and we’re seeing that the results show that up until this point, yes, there are fissures in the MAGA base… but [Trump’s] still got a grip.”

After the redistricting proposal was voted down last year, Trump vowed to go after the GOP “rebels” not supporting him.

“I will do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again. One of my favorite States, Indiana, will be the only State in the Union to turn the Republican Party down!” he wrote at the time on Truth Social.

Watch above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!