Trump's call for party unity: Are GOP leaders getting the message?

Former President Trump is saying that the Democratic Party is more unified than the Republican Party, and there are growing signs that Republican leaders are getting the message. 

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the new GOP conference chair, participated in a "Stand with Israel" news conference on Thursday with Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who challenged her in the GOP conference chair election to replace Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a vocal critic of Trump.

"This question needs to be asked of every Democrat Member of Congress: Do you stand with Israel, or do you stand with the terrorist organization of Hamas?" Stefanik said during the news conference. "This should be an easy answer, but apparently for Democrats, it no longer is."

Cheney supported Trump's impeachment in his second trial. She was also critical of Trump's claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

"Today we face a threat America has never seen before," Cheney said. "A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him."

Many GOP House members said Cheney was becoming a distraction from the Republican agenda and a vote was held to remove her as the conference chair.

"I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office," Cheney said after the vote to remove her.

Stefanik won the election for GOP conference chair to replace Cheney. 

Meanwhile, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has come out in opposition to legislation setting up a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy had previously announced he would vote no. 

"It's not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress," McConnell said on Wednesday. "The facts have come out, and they'll continue to come out."

McConnell made his statement about the legislation after Trump encouraged Republicans to vote down the commission on Wednesday.

"Republicans in the House and Senate should not approve the Democrat trap of the January 6 Commission," Trump said. "Republicans must get much tougher and much smarter, and stop being used by the Radical Left."

McConnell's favorability rating dropped after an acrimonious public break with Trump that included scathing condemnation of the former president on the Senate floor. A post-second impeachment poll showed Trump remained popular among Republican voters. 

Trump has often argued that Democrats stick together more than the Republicans.

At a cabinet meeting in October 2019, for example, he said: "They're vicious and they stick together, they don't have a Mitt Romney in their midst. They don't have people like that. They stick together. You never see them break off." 

The popular base of the GOP has been sending similar signals in recent months, administering harsh public rebukes of GOP elected leaders who turned against Trump after the 2020 election and the tumultuous events of Jan. 6

Romney, for example, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial, was roundly booed at a recent GOP meeting in his home state. Others who supported Trump's impeachment, such as North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr and Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, faced censure in their home states. The Wyoming Republican Party central committee censured Cheney as well. 

On Thursday, Trump criticized the 35 House Republicans who voted with Democrats in favor of the Jan. 6 commission bill: "See, 35 wayward Republicans — they just can't help themselves. We have much better policy and are much better for the Country, but the Democrats stick together, the Republicans don't. They don't have the Romney's, Little Ben Sasse's, and Cheney's of the world. Unfortunately, we do. Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak. The voters understand!"

The bill passed on Wednesday evening in the House. Democrats would need 10 Republicans to vote with them in the 50-50 Senate to pass the bill, which for now appears unlikely.