Former GOP Strategist Stuart Stevens on the Republican Party

STUART STEVENS, THE LINCOLN PROJECT: Look, when I hear this talk of civil war in the Republican Party, I wish that was the case. I don’t really see it’s much of a war. I think, with a few exceptions. Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, the Republican Party is very content being a Trump party. We have to remember, you go back to the platform at their convention in 2020. Instead of these horrific platform fights we used to have over policy, there really wasn’t any policy, except to support what Donald Trump wanted.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Yes.

STEVENS: And I think that’s where the party is and where the party is content being.

AMANPOUR: OK, but as you saw with your own eyes and the whole world saw, that lost them the White House, it lost them — or kept the House in Democratic hands, and it lost them the Senate. What’s good about it? And let me, just to your point, reiterate some of this; 86 percent of Republicans consider Donald Trump’s presidency a success; 79 percent of Republicans still have a favorable opinion; 75 percent do not believe that Biden legitimately won the election. And 88 percent oppose Trump’s removal from office. Obviously, that was before he left and while they were talking about impeachment. So, you’ve got that and then you’ve got what I correctly laid out about how the Republicans have lost in this cycle. What do they not get, Stuart Stevens?

STEVENS: Well, that is a profound and great question. I think that we shouldn’t assume that political parties always act in their best interests. I think political parties, history shows us, is getting a downward spiral and until it sort of burns itself out, that spiral will continue. In any logical sense, you’re absolutely right. The Republican Party should look at what happened in Georgia, for instance. Losing two Senate seats in Georgia is extraordinary. And then the next day, their own capitol is invaded by Republican terrorists really. But that doesn’t seem to have been enough to shake the party. I think it is going to take more. I think they’re going to have to lose more and I think only the realization that there is no future going down this path will nudge the party to change.

AMANPOUR: OK. So that’s where strategists like you come in. Will they lose more or will they right the ship? Because, you know, you see — I mean, they’ve got two years, right, until the midterms. The Democrats hold all the levers of executive and legislative power and control right now. Do you see a way for them to — for the Republicans, to lose more or actually to make up ground?

STEVENS: I think that the long-term trend is very bad for the Republican Party. Like all trend lines, I don’t think it is going to go straight down.