RINO

FMRLY disambig see moderate pols, NOW INCLUDES DEVIL TERM

note, putin calls anyone he does not like/does not obey him a nazi eg ukraine invasion

similarly

TRUMP hijacks/revives the term for RETALIATION for lack of loyalty to him personally eg

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MORANO REBOOT?

morano gmaIl 10 25

no lnx

Audrey Streb

DCNF Energy Reporter

October 13, 2025

Republican Utah Sen. John Curtis is reportedly planning to co-lead a delegation to the annual U.N. climate change conference, which some critics told the Daily Caller News Foundation clashes with President Donald Trump’s energy agenda.

Curtis told E&E News Friday that he and Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons will lead a delegation to Brazil together for this year’s COP30 and that three other unnamed Republicans are also interested in joining the troop. The U.N. climate change conference is set to host several youth-led climate forums and discuss the Paris Agreement that Trump directed the U.S. to abandon through a day-one executive order.

“RINOs like Sen. Curtis are trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of MAGA victory by going to the annual UN climate confab in Brazil,” Steve Milloy, Senior Fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute told the DCNF. “There, they will conspire with China and Europe in trying to subvert President Trump’s agenda of defeating the climate hoax, terminating the Green New Scam and making America energy dominant.” (RELATED: John Curtis Has History Of Raking In Thousands From Green Energy Donors)

U.S. Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT) arrives for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)

U.S. Senator-elect John Curtis (R-UT) arrives for the Senate Republican leadership elections at the U.S. Capitol on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images)

A spokesperson for Curtis’ office told the DCNF that “plans are not finalized yet for the Senator’s travel,” though E&E News reported Friday that Curtis said “we have an agenda that is really coming together nicely. We’re super happy with it.”

The Trump administration has not announced that it will send a delegation to the November conference and Trump recently called climate change policy the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” in front of the United Nations General Assembly in September. Trump has moved to ax federal support for green energy sources like wind and solar that the Biden administration favored while bolstering conventional resources like coal.

“Leave it to ‘Mitt Romney’ style Republicans like Sen. Curtis to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. … The UN climate agenda and the UN’s COP30 meetings should be disbanded, not given credibility by GOP senators,” Marc Morano, author and Climate Depot executive editor, told the DCNF. “This is a pathetic throwback to the pre-Trump Republicanism of George H. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. … The UN climate agenda has quite literally overseen the outsourcing of the West’s once dominant industries to China, India, and the developing world. The U.S., Canada, and Europe have boasted about emission accounting tricks, while China builds two new coal plants a week and benefits from the West’s attempts at a ‘green transition.’ The U.S. does not need ‘a seat at the table’ at the UN climate summit, we need to knock the table over.”

Curtis has historically split with many Republicans over climate change policy and has notably advocated against a wholesale repeal of Biden-era green energy tax credits that Trump railed against. Earlier this year, Curtis told Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it is “really important” to have a “Republican voice at that table,” in reference to COP30.

The Senator pointed to nuclear specifically as an energy resource Republicans could elevate at COP30.

Critics like Milloy, Morano and President of the Heartland Institute James Taylor told the DCNF that COP30 should not be endorsed by Republican participation as it runs counter to Trump’s energy policies and suggests that the left-leaning climate talking points the president has fought hold legitimacy.

“Republicans who attend COP30 for any reason other than to mock it are hypocrites and grandstanders,” Taylor told the DCNF. “How much carbon dioxide are they going to spew into the atmosphere merely so they can have a ‘photo op’ at a portion of the Amazon rainforest that was destroyed in order to create a venue for this vacation conference of UN bureaucrats?”

Notably, developers razed portions of the Amazon rainforest to construct a road for COP30, and a 2024 study released right before COP29 showed that emissions rise sharply during major conferences due to private jet travel.

Coons’ office did not respond to the DCNF’s multiple requests for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Tags : brazil climate change cop 30 john curtis rinos trump administration

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10 20 revival of term vs big lie?

everal close associates of former President Donald Trump and candidates whom he endorsed in the November midterm elections took part in a two-day ReAwaken America Tour event at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim, Pennsylvania over the weekend.

ABC27 noted this week that "Eric Trump, former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and former Trump advisor Roger Stone" would be in attendance. Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial hopeful Doug Mastriano had also been placed on the VIP list.

Saturday's finale for the "The Great ReAwakening vs The Great Reset" conspiracy theory bonanza opened with a cultish call-and-response prayer in which the preacher and audience jointly invoked Jesus Christ to empower Trump, who was not there, to destroy his political opposition.

"Father God, we come to you in the name of Jesus. We're asking you to open the eyes of President Trump’s understanding, that he will know the time of divine intervention. He will know how to implement divine intervention. And you will surround him, Father, with none of this deep state trash, none of this RINO trash. You'll surround him – people that you'll pick – with your own mighty hand," the man bellowed. "In the name of Jesus.”

Watch below or at this link.

8 22 primary see RINO impeach 10 (most opted not to run again, several flanked?)

Peter Meijer, Republican who voted to impeach Trump, loses Michigan seat

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-backed-rep-mooney-wins-011242372.html

NBC

Trump-backed Rep. Mooney wins W.Va. Republican House primary

NBC News

Allan Smith

Tue, May 10, 2022,

Rep. Alex Mooney defeated Rep. David McKinley in the GOP primary for West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday, a victory for former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Mooney.

In a rare matchup of incumbents, McKinley and Mooney faced off after the state lost one of its congressional seats amid declining population and their districts were combined.

Trump backed Mooney after McKinley voted for the bipartisan infrastructure package and the effort to create a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Serving the people of West Virginia has been the honor of my life. I’m proud that I have always stood up for what’s right for West Virginia — even when it hurt me politically," McKinley said in a statement. "The groundwork we have laid over the last twelve years has paved the way for a more prosperous and diverse West Virginia economy."

At Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania last week, Mooney called McKinley “a total RINO,” an acronym for "Republican in name only" frequently used as an insult to mean someone is insufficiently conservative or loyal to the party.

“He voted for the January 6th commission to investigate Donald Trump and his allies,” Mooney said. “He was one of 13 so-called Republicans to vote for the Joe Biden-Pelosinon-infrastructure $1.2 trillion spending package.[BBB] … He’s a liberal, RINO Republican. To be successful, we need to kick out these RINOs in primaries.”

At the same rally, Trump said McKinley is someone Mooney “should beat easily.”

“You better beat them easily,” Trump said. “Or I’m gonna look very bad. They’re gonna say, ‘Trump has lost it!’”

McKinley has called Mooney a "carpetbagger," citing his move to West Virginia in 2014 to run for Congress after having served in the Maryland state Senate and chairing the Maryland GOP.

While Trump threw his support behind Mooney, McKinley has the backing of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican who changed his party affiliation after Trump’s presidential victory, and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

In a 30-second campaign ad released by the McKinley campaign, Manchin praised McKinley for backing the infrastructure deal and said it was an “outright lie” for Mooney to claim McKinley supported Biden’s “Build Back Better” social welfare proposals.

“Alex Mooney has proven he’s all about Alex Mooney,” Manchin said in the ad. “But West Virginians know David McKinley is all about us.”

no lnx

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/pro-putin-anti-gay-qanon-supporter-lauren-witzke-continues-to-be-delawares-most-embarrassing-republican/

Pro-Putin, anti-gay and QAnon: Meet Delaware’s most embarrassing Republican

[Lauren Witzke, from Facebook]

Alex Henderson March 04, 2022

In Delaware, the most famous Democrat is President Joe Biden, who commutes between the White House and his home in that heavily Democratic state. Delaware’s most famous — or infamous — Republican, meanwhile, isfar-right Christian nationalist and QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke, who drew widespread condemnation in late February when she praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a symbol of Christian piety. But Witzke’s praise of Putin is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her extremism and her ability to embarrass the state of Delaware.

During an appearance on the Christian Right program “Cross Talk,” the 34-year-old native of Delmar, Delaware — who suffered a landslide defeat when she ran against Sen. Chris Coons in Delaware’s 2020 U.S. Senate race — made it clear that she supports Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

The QAnon Republican said, “Russia is a Christian nationalist nation…. I actually support Putin’s right to protect his people and always put his people first, but also, protect our Christian values. I identify more with Putin's Christian values than I do with Joe Biden.”

Witzke went on to say, “Christian nationalist countries also are a threat to the global regime — like, the Luciferian regime that wants to mash everything together. But Putin takes care of his people. He looks out for his people.”

Witzke’s comments were slammed by everyone from Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison to Rep. Eric Swalwell of California to Mother Jones’ David Corn, who pointed out that the Delaware GOP “fully supported” her.

Indeed, Delaware Republicans passionately rallied around Witzke when she received the GOP nomination in the state’s 2020 U.S. Senate race. Democrats had their share of disappointments in 2020, losing U.S. Senate races in Maine, Iowa and North Carolina. But Coons, running against Witzke, was reelected by 22%. Nominating someone as extreme as Witzke did not serve Delaware Republicans well.

Witzke gave Coons’ reelection campaign a wealth of material to use against her. She happily accepted the endorsement of White nationalist Nick Fuentes, praised the violent Proud Boys as examples of “patriotic masculinity,”called for a ten-year ban on all immigration to the United States, described Black Lives Matter as “violent terrorists,” proudly said she was a “Christian nationalist,” and called Coons a “Christian-hating baby killer.”

Witzke is vehemently anti-gay and anti-trans, and she has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory — which claims that the United States’ federal government has been taken over by an international cabal of pedophiles, child sex traffickers, Satanists and cannibals and that Donald Trump was elected in 2016 to fight the cabal. QAnon also believes that R&B superstar Beyoncé isn’t really Black, but is only pretending to be Black and is really an Italian woman named Ann Marie Lastrassi who works for billionaire Democrat George Soros.

Delaware Republicans had options other than Witzke in 2020, when she ran against formerU.S. Marine James DeMartino in the state’s GOP U.S. Senate primary. But Witzke slammed the conservative DeMartino as a RINO(Republican In Name Only). Although the Delaware GOP endorsed DeMartino during the primary, Delaware Republicans gave Witzke the nomination and got behind her in the general election — which wasn’t enough to save her from losing badly to Coons.

In 2022, Witzke continues to make the Delaware Republican Party look bad every chance she gets — and when she praised Putin during its invasion of Ukraine, Witzke did exactly that.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/mccain-was-never-moderate-here-are-8-right-wing-republicans-who-were-labeled-rinos

When the news came late last week that Sen. John McCain had discontinued his treatments for brain cancer and was near death, a long list of people in the political world—Democrats as well as Republicans—sent their condolences to the McCain family. But Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren, speaking at a rally for Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward, couldn’t be bothered with condolences. Instead, Lahren told the crowd of Ward supporters, “We can’t put up another RINO like McCain and (Sen. Jeff) Flake.” RINO, in the terminology of the far right, is short for “Republican In Name Only”—and as Lahren and others of her authoritarian ilk see it, McCain (who died on Saturday, August 25 at the age of 81) failed the far-right purity test. Ironically, Lahren herself was called a RINO for daring to say that the GOP should be more inclusive of pro-choice Republicans.

A self-described “Goldwater Republican,” McCain was never a liberal. But occasionally, the Arizona senator would cross party lines and vote with Democrats in the Senate—which is why he was considered a “maverick” within right-wing politics. But to the far right, “maverick” is synonymous with RINO (or to use one of the alt-right’s favorite insults, “cuckservative”). The fact that McCain inspired so much contempt from Lahren and AM talk radio host Rush Limbaugh speaks volumes about the far-right’s authoritarian mindset. And he was hardly the only right-wing Republican who was called a RINO for daring to have a mind of his own; many others on the right have been called RINOs as well.

Here are eight right-wing Republicans who were branded as RINOs for failing the far-right purity test.

1. Tom Ridge

After serving two terms as governor of swing state Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge joined President George W. Bush’s administration in early 2003 as director of the Department of Homeland Security. Ridge is conservative, but he has never been fond of the Christian Right and is pro-choice on the abortion issue—which is one of the reasons theocratic social conservatives hate him and consider him a RINO. In 2008, when McCain received the GOP presidential nomination, Ridge was at the top of his list for a potential running mate(Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman was also considered). McCain thought highly of Ridge, but Richard A. Viguerie and other theocrats threatened that if Ridge or any other “pro-abortion vice presidential candidate” was on the ticket, he could forget about the Christian Right’s support—and ultimately, McCain was pressured into choosing the buffoonish Sarah Palin as his running mate.

2. Christine Todd Whitman

The late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr., founder of the Moral Majority, complained bitterly because President George W. Bush included Tom Ridge, Lt. Gen. Colin Powell and two-term New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in his administration; to Falwell, Bush was much too RINO-friendly—and because Whitman was pro-choice on the abortion issue, she couldn’t live down the RINO label. Whitman felt that the Christian Right had become much too influential in GOP politics and addressed that in her 2005 book “It’s My Party, Too: Taking Back the Republican Party... And Bringing the Country Together Again.” And these days, Whitman is persona non grata in most GOP circles because of her disdain for President Trump, who she denounced as unfit for the presidency in a July 22 commentary for the Los Angeles Times.

3. Ohio Gov. John Kasich

Unlike other Never Trump Republicans from 2015 and 2016 who caved into pressure and have become loyal, subservient Trumpistas, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has remained firm in his assertion that Trump is harmful to the GOP brand. And to Trumpistas and the Tea Party, Kasich’s refusal to support Trump—along with the fact that Ohio accepted Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion—makes him a RINO or “cuckservative.” Columnist Dana Milbank, in a 2015 commentary on Kasich, wrote, “In reality, Kasich’s views are reliably conservative. What’s hurting him, more likely, is his inclusive talk. Kasich preaches to fellow conservatives about doing right by racial minorities, immigrants, gay people, labor unions, the poor and drug addicts.”

4. Sen. Jeff Flake

The notion that Sen. Jeff Flake is a leftist is ludicrous; in 2014, the Arizona senator received a 95% rating from the American Conservative Union compared to, for example, only 6% for Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Regardless, Lahren considers him a RINO for being an outspoken Trump critic. Conservapedia.com (a far-right website with a Wikipedia-like format) has devoted an entire page to Flake’s alleged RINO positions, which included being overly sympathetic to gays, abortion and immigrants.

5. Barry Goldwater

When the late Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater lost badly to Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election, he was considered an arch-conservative. Goldwater and William F. Buckley were often described as the essence of right-wing conservatism in those days, but when the Christian Right gained so much influence in the GOP under Ronald Reagan’s presidency, Goldwater became highly critical of the Rev. Falwell and similar theocrats—and even Mr. Conservative himself, Barry Goldwater, was labeled a RINO in the 1980s and 1990s.

6. Jeb Bush

The son of President George H.W. Bush (President Ronald Reagan’s vice president for eight years) and former First Lady Barbara Bush and the brother of President George W. Bush, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush comes from a family that has been synonymous with right-wing politics for generations. But the alt-right has repeatedly denounced Jeb Bush as a RINO and a “cuckservative,” insisting that he’s soft on illegal immigration—and the fact that he is a fluent Spanish speaker who is married to a Mexican woman, Columba Bush, is deeply troubling to the alt-right, which sees him as a traitor to his race.

7. Sen. John McCain

Year after year, Rush “OxyContin” Limbaugh painted McCain as someone who was more of an ally to Democrats than Republicans—which was nonsense. The Arizona senator voted with Republicans in the Senate much more than Democrats, but even the occasional vote with Democrats was deeply troubling to Limbaugh and other wingnuts. And that continued during the last few years of McCain’s life. McCain voted with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and voted to confirm Trump nominee Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court—and it’s doubtful that he would have voted against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s second High Court nominee. But when McCain voted against the American Health Care Act (one of Republicans’ proposed replacements for the Affordable Care Act of 2010, a.k.a. Obamacare) in 2017, the far right saw it as proof that he was a RINO and a “cuckservative” at heart.

8. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty favors overturning Roe v. Wade, opposes same-sex marriage, praises the Family Research Council and favors deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare. But that isn’t enough for the far-right: this year, Pawlenty lost to Jeff Johnson (a commissioner in Hennepin County, Minnesota) in a GOP gubernatorial primary—which the far-right sees as a victory over a RINO. Reflecting on the defeat, Pawlenty declared, “The Republican Party has shifted. It is the era of Trump, and I’m just not a Trump-like politician.”