After the surprise Gubernatorial win by Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, the GOP is in the process of rapidly trying to pivot away from Donald Trump. CNN reported that “Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told some of the Republican Party’s most influential donors and bundlers Saturday that the only way for the party to continue building on last Tuesday’s electoral successes is to move beyond former President Donald Trump’s fixation with the 2020 election results — while showing voters they will listen and fight for them…” In an appearance on Meet The Press, former Florida Governor and Medicare/Medicaid frauster Rick Scott insisted: “If you’re a Republican, you want his [Trump’s] endorsement, but you’re going to win on the issues. And if you listen to Ron Klain, and you listen to Phil Murphy, they didn’t get it. What Americans are fed up with, they’re fed up with inflation…” Multiple media outlets have run stories describing how GOP candidates want to keep Trump “at arm’s length, but on their side.”

The recent “Post-Virginia Pivot” shows a Republican Party that is eager to try to distance themselves from the findings of the January 6th investigation, while still holding on to Trump’s most loyal supporters. This could be an especially difficult balancing act for the GOP, as many candidates within the Republican Party, like NY-21st Republican Elise Stefanik, have a well documented record of pathetic and slavish fealty to Trump, that cannot be easily wiped away. Republicans could also have difficulty motivating Trump’s base of working class white voters if there is a widespread emergence of troll sock puppet accounts on multiple social media outlets insisting that “the GOP used Trump and then betrayed him”. If large numbers of internet-savvy Democratic voters decide to coordinate “grass-roots” information efforts to sabotage the GOP, the result could be complete electoral devastation in the 2022 mid-terms.