Alyssa Farah Griffin pointed to Republican strategist Karl Rove breaking ranks and voting Democrat as just one “warning sign” for the Republican Party of things to come.
Griffin, a CNN commentator and co-host of The View, joined Pamela Brown on The Situation Room on Friday. She warned Republicans that there are serious signs of trouble they cannot keep ignoring.
Griffin first called it “remarkable” that Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) came out so clearly this week against President Donald Trump with an ad blasting his mass deportation policies. The president had endorsed Salazar just weeks before the explosive ad dropped.
Griffin, a former communications official in Trump’s first administration, said Salazar must have internal polls showing she is deeply underwater, because it is so rare to see such a direct rebuke of this White House from a Republican. Still, she said, Salazar is “spot on.”
“Securing the border is popular,” Griffin said, adding that she does not understand why the president doesn’t talk more about that success. But she said the immigration enforcement tactics are deeply unpopular, and it saddens her that the White House missed such an opportunity.
Griffin noted that Trump was reelected with an incredible coalition, something she said many did not think Republicans could pull off. That included a record number of Hispanic voters, a record number of Black voters and a win in the popular vote. But she said he has so quickly bled that support because of his excessive actions on immigration enforcement.
Brown also asked about Rove, who revealed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he will be going blue in a Texas state race. It is only the second Democrat Rove has ever voted for in his life.
Rove will be voting for Jon Rosenthal following a post by Republican Bo French about South Asian students at the University of Texas at Austin. French posted an image of students cheering at the Texas Longhorn game against Ohio State and took aim at their race.
“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French wrote.
Rove wrote that people like French “are diminishing the Republican Party, not building it. I’ll have no part of it.”
Griffin called it a major warning sign of the rise of an extremism wing in the GOP. She pointed to a Substack piece by conservative commentator Erick Erickson, which she said she would recommend all Americans read. She said it discusses a portion of the party catering to a nationalistic, bigoted, racist element within the Republican base.
Griffin acknowledged that the left has its own issues, including anti-semitism. But she said it is important that political parties police their own ranks and not diminish what they stand for in order to cater to a small minority of the American public.
“In this case, I applaud Karl Rove,” Griffin said. She called the sentiment posted by the railroad commissioner candidate in Texas “really just disgusting and not something any American should support.”
“And I think you’re going to hear more and more Republicans come out,” she said.
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