'Just move on': Republicans grapple with post-Trump future - The Associated Press

But the process is especially intense as Republicans confront profound questions about what the party stands for without Donald Trump in charge.

“We have to decide if we’re going to continue heading down the direction of Donald Trump or if we’re going to return to our roots,” Hogan, a potential 2024 White House contender, said in an interview.

Republican elections officials in several battleground states that President Joe Biden carried have said the election was fair.

Looking forward, Cruz said Trump would remain a significant part of the political conversation, but that the Republican Party should move away from divisive “language and tone and rhetoric” that alienated suburban voters, particularly women, in recent elections.

“President Trump surely will continue to make his views known, and they’ll continue to have a real impact, but I think the country going forward wants policies that work, and I think as a party, we need to do a better job winning hearts and minds,” said Cruz, who is also eyeing a White House run.

The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, said on the eve of the inauguration that the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol was “provoked by the president.” Even Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president and long considered his most devoted cheerleader, skipped Trump’s departure ceremony to attend Biden’s inauguration.

“The Republican National Committee views President Trump as our party leader into the future...

The (state party) agrees,” Eathorne said, noting that Trump “represents the timeless principles” that the state and national GOP stand for.

Hogan, the Maryland governor, said that the GOP may be at one of its lowest points ever, but noted that Reagan reclaimed the White House for Republicans just six years after President Richard Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace.

“Obviously, (Trump) still has got a lock on a pretty good chunk of the Republican base, but there are an awful lot of people that were afraid to speak out for four years — unlike me —who are now starting to speak out,” Hogan said.

“I hope that Republicans won’t participate in this petty, vindictive, final attack directed at President Trump,” Cruz said