RNC Chairwoman Warns GOP Critics of Trump

The chairwoman of the RNC responded to intra-party criticism of President Trump with a warning Monday.

From CNN:
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, during a conversation about Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, said Monday that 2016 Republican Senate candidates who did not back President Donald Trump during his presidential run and lost should serve as a "cautionary tale."
Flake, who just released a new book and is up for reelection in 2018, is a prominent critic of Trump.
…
Three Republican Senate candidates who said they were not supporting Trump ended up losing their Senate races: Mark Kirk in Illinois, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, and Joe Heck in Nevada. Trump also lost in those three states, and Ayotte and Kirk ran ahead of Trump in the final vote count. Heck received fewer votes than Trump, but lost by the same percentage as him in the state.
Two other Senate candidates who disavowed Trump after the Access Hollywood tape, Rob Portman in Ohio and John McCain in Arizona, won their races. Trump won both those states.

As CNN’s piece illustrates, McDaniel’s suggestion that Senate candidates who split with Trump all failed stretches the truth. Besides Portman and McCain, Senator Lisa Murkowski called for Trump to drop out of the race and went on to win her re-election bid. Pennsylvania senator Pat Toomey declined to endorse Trump and wonre-election. Utah senator Mike Lee called on Trump to “step aside” in a statement on Facebook and won nearly 70 percent of the vote. Like Murkowski and Lee, South Dakota Senator John Thune encouraged Trump to “withdraw” in favor of Mike Pence before winning 72 percent of the vote in his race.