A round of layoffs at the Republican National Committee Monday blindsided staff, three sources familiar with what happened , as President Donald Trump continues his legal push to contest Joe Biden’s victory.
The party is in the middle of a fundraising blitz as the national party chair, Ronna McDaniel, is publicly pushing Trump’s baseless allegations that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Departments within the RNC were instructed Monday to inform staffers who were being laid off, though the scale of the layoffs vary among the departments.
Most stemmed from those assigned to the RNC-Trump Victory program, the joint fundraising effort between the RNC and Trump campaign that served as the ground and field program for the Trump campaign.
A Republican source told a “large portion of staff” were laid off. The exact number is unclear and the RNC declined to respond repeated requests for comment. Trump White House
One source told most of these jobs were only intended to last through the election, but the round of layoffs underscores how the Republican apparatus is hardly moving full-steam ahead to challenge the outcome of the results as the President wishes.
In the Florida recount in 2000, the Republican National Committee dedicated large swaths of staff to Palm Beach and Florida’s 66 other counties.
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A similar effort is not being taken in 2020, though some RNC staffers will be sent to Georgia ahead of expected twin Senate runoffs in Georgia.
Though the President refuses to accept his election loss, one RNC source put it bluntly: “Layoffs are the logical next step considering the outcome.”