RNC chair tries to clarify tweet about opposing Trump agenda

June 14, 2018 11:29 AM

VERONICA STRACQUALURSI, CNN

Posted: June 14, 2018 11:29 AM

Updated: May 24, 2021 8:49 PM

by VERONICA STRACQUALURSI, CNN

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is attempting to clarify a tweet she sent on Wednesday that warned anyone who does not support President Donald Trump’s agenda “will be making a mistake.”

“Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake,” McDaniel tweeted Wednesday night.

The tweet drew widespread criticism online for its perceived threat to Trump’s critics.

While she did not retract the comment, McDaniel said Thursday in a follow up tweet that her comments “didn’t translate well” on Twitter, which has a 280-character limit.

McDaniel’s tweet was extracted and slightly reworded from her interview Tuesday with Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs.

“We have got a lot more to do, and we cannot risk losing that in these midterms,” McDaniel told Dobbs. “So, complacency is going to be our enemy, and anyone who doesn’t embrace the Trump agenda and doesn’t recognize the issues that propelled us to victory in the White House is going to be making a mistake.”

In the same interview, she declared that the “Republican Party is the Trump Party.”

McDaniel’s original tweet sparked outrage from fellow conservatives.

“What in the actual hell…. is this a threat Ronna?” Meghan McCain, the daughter of Republican Sen. John McCain, tweeted in response.

Conservative pundit and CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp wrote, “Demagoguery and cheap threats are now the weapons of the @GOP. Reagan would be so proud.”

“I’m old enough to remember when Ronna Romney McDaniel spoke in a way befitting a citizen of a free republic, before Ronna McDaniel started sounding like a spokesperson for an authoritarian government,” another conservative commentator, Bill Kristol, wrote on Twitter.

GOP strategist Rick Wilson, who has been highly critical of Trump, quipped, “Will the RNC be offering an official Trump brand so everyone can sear His name on their bodies as a sign of loyalty? Asking for a friend.”