Deliberate fake news on Indian River Republican website shows party has changed | Opinion – TCPalm

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When I heard last week Indian River Countys Republican Party website listed Donald Trump as president with a term expiring in 2024, I figured it was mistake.

Nope, said Jay Kramer, chairman of the county GOPs executive committee.

"Trump hasn't conceded, and it's our opinion the election was stolen," Kramer, the former mayor of Vero Beach, told TCPalms Josh Solomon last week. "It's important to make a statement and to make sure the statement stays relevant for the next 3 years."

I asked Kramer Monday about the website, which had been changed to list Trumps 2016-2020 presidential term.

In a video on Twitter, President Trump acknowledged his President-elect Biden's election victory and called for a "smooth" transition of power. USA TODAY

It shouldnt have been changed, Kramer said of the website, adding (Trump) still says there was fraud involved and he has not conceded.

The fact isno court has determined the November election was stolen. Joe Bidenwas sworn in as president by John Roberts, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden takes the oath of office from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as his wife, first lady Jill Biden, stands next to him during the 59th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS) ORG XMIT: 6515091W(Photo: By Linda Borg, MA_Worcester_TG)

The country has accepted the fact Joe Biden is the president, said Tom Lockwood, who led the countys GOP for almost 25 years before retiring from the post in 2018. I have mixed emotions. ... It is what it is. We need to move on.

Indian Rivers GOP no longer is the party of thoughtful legends like Lockwood, Carole Jean Jordan (tax collector and former state head of the GOP) and Jeanette Riel, honored as the oldest delegate at the 1996 convention.

U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, left, Carole Jean Jordan, chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Thomas Lockwood, chairman of Republican Executive Committee, and Bob Von Buelow, Indian River County fire investigator, chat during the annual Lincoln Day Dinner at the Grand Harbor Golf Club on Thursday night Feb. 12, 2004.(Photo: CHRIS WEATHERLY/TCPALM)

They were among the pioneerswho, amid the Reagan revolution, helped turn the county from blue to red and kept it that way. They helped to build a party that has a plurality of county voters,46.4% vs. 27.4% Democrats.

Last week TCPalm found at least 10 Florida county GOP websiteslisting Trump as president. Some had not been updated since the election.

St. Lucie County GOP Chair Kenny Nail said its listing was unintentional. The website has been corrected.

Regardless of what Kramer said, Trump conceded Biden would become president in a speech Jan. 7, the day after insurrectionists stormed the Capitoland interrupted Congress' electoral vote tally.

A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, Trump said. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.

This moment calls for healing and reconciliation, he continued. Defeating this pandemic and restoring the greatest economy on Earth will require all of us working together. We must recognize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bond us together as one national family.

A screenshot from the Republican Party of Indian River County website taken on March 16, 2021, lists Donald J. Trump as the current president. Currently 10 Florida county Republican Party websites are showing Donald J. Trump as the current president.(Photo: SCREENSHOT FROM INDIAN RIVER COUNTY GOP WEBSITE)

More: Some Florida GOP websites still list Donald Trump as president

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Susan Auld, former head of the Martin County GOP executive committee and former GOP House leader in Vermont, tended to agree.

A divided country will not thrive, she told me Tuesday. We need to come together around positive principles that lead us all forward. Were headed on a downhill slide because were divided.

Unitingas a party is critical, she said.

A divided party will not win elections and that's where we are headed at the moment, she said, noting the GOP ought to focus on such items as peoples liberties, states rights and such. We have to rally around the principles of the party.

Lockwood, who said he has seen increasing division in the local party the past four years, agreed.

Prior to that we were pretty cohesive, he said of a party that won nearly every local election for more than three decades. If we stay divided, we will fall.

Auld said she has a lot of questions about the election, but its time to move on.

I dont think trying to change this is going to help anyone, she said.

A Suffolk University/USA TODAY Poll in February showed just how divided Republicans are nationally. A plurality of those surveyed, 46%-27%, say they would abandon the GOP and join a Trump party if the former president created one. Others are undecided.

Ive heard Trump supporters say Democrats never acknowledged he won the 2016 election and tried for four years to boot him so theyre not going to accept Biden aspresident. Now U.S. House Democrats arereviewing the Iowa election of a Republican House member.

When will the fighting end and the business of focusing on our nation begin?

U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas(Photo: TCPALM FILE PHOTO)

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, expressed concern in a recent podcast, particularly with regard to division in his own party.

It's really easy to call all my other Republican colleagues RINOs (Republicans in name only) and say they never do anything, said the former Navy SEAL, who lost an eye in battle. I will never use the term because it's stupid, because it indicates a lack of thinking.

The reality, he said, is if Republicans dont unify they will lose no matter how hard and loud they fight. And losing, when he was a SEAL, was not an option.

It means presenting our case with a moderate audience in mind across a variety of platforms, Crenshaw said. It means actually understanding conservative principles and understanding how those principles make for superior governance and policy solutions.

In other words, Crenshaw thinks the battle for the all-important middle can be won with words, not bluster.

The politicians involved in the effort to block the election knew better, and they still did it, Crenshaw said. They still said this is where we finally fight. And, apparently so, the best way to fight, I guess, according to them, is to engage in unwinnable battles that persuade no one and leave you, their supporters, even more desperate and downtrodden than before.

Even two of those politicians who represent the Treasure and Space coasts issued somewhat conciliatory statements upon Bidens inauguration.

Larry Reisman(Photo: PATRICK DOVE/TCPALM)

While expressing his disagreement with Bidens socialist policies and efforts to appease the radical left, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, said he was committed to working with him when we can find areas of agreement, especially on the issues that are most important to me personally: fixing Floridas water issues and serving our veterans.

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Despite the divisions that exist in our nation right now, I do believe there is still more that unites us than divides us, and there is certainly no country I would rather call home!

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said he shared a letter of Congratulations with President Biden.

Meanwhile, there's deliberate fake news on Indian River Countys GOP website.

Sad, but true.

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman

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Deliberate fake news on Indian River Republican website shows party has changed | Opinion - TCPalm