“It’s a sad sign of the times,” said Olivia Troye, a Trump White House official who has become an outspoken critic, now with the Republican Accountability Project. “It’s a very fundamental thing in our society. If you’re an elected official in our democracy, you should be pro-democracy.”
Under the group’s rankings, the top Republicans on Capitol Hill do not fare particularly well. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and his No. 2 officer, Whip Steve Scalise, both receive F grades. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, despite his floor speech rejecting Trump’s attempts to overturn the election, received a C-plus, as did Senate Whip John Thune.
However, the House’s third-ranking officer, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming who said there had “never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution” received an A.
McCarthy, who since Jan. 6 has repeatedly defended Trump’s actions and even visited him at his Mar-a-Lago tennis and croquet club in Palm Beach, Florida, did not respond to a HuffPost query about his ranking.
The Republican Accountability Project has graded all GOP members of Congress on how they dealt with Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election he lost and remain in power. The majority of them received an F.
Trump lost the Nov. 3 election to Democrat Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes nationally and lost 306-232 in the Electoral College. He nonetheless started lying in the wee hours of Nov. 4 that he had won in “a landslide” and that his victory was being stolen from him.