RNC chairman: voters have 'no reason' to trust GOP Jeremy Gantz

Published: Friday February 13, 2009





Print This Email This The chairman of the Republican National Committee has confirmed what Democrats and millions of others frustrated with his party have probably been thinking for a while: the GOP can't be trusted.



In a surprisingly frank exchange on Glenn Beck's Fox News program Friday, Michael Steele responded to Beck's anger that the Republican Party had "betrayed" its supporters by allowing "socialism" to occur in America this way:



"Im not going to soft pedal this with you," Steele said. "The reality of it is, you are absolutely right. You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point."



Beck was apparently referring to legislation passed during the last six months, amounting to more than a trillion dollars in bailouts and spending  including the $789 billion stimulus package which passed the House Friday and is expected to pass the Senate, and the $700 billion "bailout" passed into law last October.



The fact that a trio of Republican senators  Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania  have broke with their colleagues to vote for the new stimulus bill likely also prompted Beck's umbrage.



"We expect socialism from some of the Democrats. We don't expect it from you," Beck told Steele, as the question "What is GOP going to do to stop march toward socialism?" ran at the bottom of the screen. "We actually took a lot of crap for a long time... And then you guys betrayed us. Why should we even think twice of pulling a level again?"



After Steele said regaining supporters' trust is "going to be an uphill climb," Beck declared the chairman's answer "refreshing."



A conservative political action committee has pledged to support primary challenges to any GOP senator who supports the stimulus bill, CNN reported.



"Republican senators are on notice," Scott Wheeler, the executive director of The National Republican Trust PAC, told the network earlier this week. "If they support the stimulus package, we will make sure every voter in their state knows how they tried to further bankrupt voters in an already bad economy."



The following video was broadcast on Fox News February 13, 2009.















