Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), an undeclared-but-campaigning U.S. Senate non-candidate, is taking fire after telling donors he was “praying” during the 2022 midterms that the forecasted Republican “red wave” would only produce a “small” GOP House majority so the party’s most conservative wing could advance its agenda.
Conservative radio talk show hosts Mark Levin and Hugh Hewitt are among those blasting Mr. Rosendale for his comments during a Zoom conference last week between House Freedom Caucus members and 50 conservative donors arranged by Caroline Wren, a Republican fundraiser who has worked with Trump campaigns as well as those for Mr. Rosendale and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Mr. Rosendale told donors he prayed for a narrow GOP House margin during the 2022 elections so a relatively small number of uber conservatives could “drag the conference over to the right.”
The meeting, first reported by The Messenger and documented in video obtained by Fox News Digital, was attended by many of the House Freedom Caucus’s 40 members, including Mr. Gaetz, and conservative media icon Steve Bannon.
“Look, we have shown, OK, with a very small handful of people, six at times, five at times, that we can have tremendous impact in that body,” Mr. Rosendale said. “When a lot of people, unfortunately, were voting to have a 270, 280 Republican House, I was praying each evening for a small majority.”
Only with a small majority, he continued, could conservatives exert leverage on GOP leadership, he said. “And we were able to do that,” he said.
“Do what?” Asked Mark Levin on his nationally syndicated evening radio show heard by 12 million weekly listeners across more than 400 stations.
Critics: Hard-Liners’ Hardball Backfired
Mr. Levin said that because of hardline conservatives like Mr. Rosendale and Mr. Gaetz, the nation is now operating under a continuing resolution (CR) that extends “Pelosi–Biden” spending without cuts conservatives fought for since March.“They rant and rave without a plan and without a real objective and now we get this 45-day CR. THEY did this,” he said in an Oct. 1 post on X.
In an Oct. 3 X post, Mr. Rosendale said, “I have kept my promise to the people of Montana by voting to make us energy-dominant again, secure our border, cut spending, and to put an end to the social experiment being inflicted on our military.”
Just the opposite, said Mr. Hewitt, whose nationally syndicated morning show is heard on 75 stations by 7.5 million weekly listeners, claiming Gaetz-led holdouts, including Mr. Rosendale, are doing more harm than good for the GOP’s 2024 prospects.
Mr. Hewitt challenged the strategy behind the gambit to force greater spending cuts than those agreed to in May’s McCarthy–Biden debt ceiling deal, and in infusing appropriations bills with “culture war” amendments guaranteed to be rejected by the Democrat-majority Senate.
He said the ploy has endangered Republicans in purple congressional districts and the GOP’s odds of retaining, if not enlarging, its 222–212 House advantage in 2024.
“The 40 new [House Republican] members are instantly endangered as donors/volunteers flee,” Mr. Hewitt wrote. “If former President [Donald] Trump becomes president again, a new [Democrat] majority will be waiting with new Articles of Impeachment, thanks to Gaetz antics.”
He said the hardliners are more interested in being center-of-attention performers than lawmakers, singling out Mr. Rosendale. “‘Maryland Matt’ Rosendale is not actually interested in the best interest of Montana voters. He’s like a bad character in ‘Yellowstone,’ a new arrival with a hat that doesn’t fit,” Mr. Hewitt said in an Oct. 2 X post.
Will It Play Back Home?
Mr. Rosendale’s role in the budget drama is being closely watched in Montana where he’s expected to announce he will challenge Tim Sheehy in the June 4, 2024, primary for the GOP nod to take on three-term Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election.Mr. Rosendale’s spokesperson Aashka Varma told The Epoch Times in late September that Mr. Rosendale was focused on the budget without a timeline for formally entering the contest other than “the one that coincides” with the March 11, 2024, filing deadline.
Nevertheless, Mr. Rosendale has been touring the state and has an active campaign committee registered with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) that began July 1 with $1.5 million in the bank.
In campaign fundraising emails, Mr. Rosendale sounds very much like a Senate candidate, regularly attacking the “McConnell–Biden establishment” that “is lining up to install another member of the Washington uniparty” in Mr. Sheehy.
Mr. Sheehy, 37, a retired Navy SEAL and the multimillionaire owner of an aerial firefighting company, has been endorsed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee led by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) Gov. Greg Gianforte, and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.).
The first-time candidate is currently unopposed in the Republican primary to challenge Mr. Tester, who defeated Mr. Rosendale—then state auditor—in 2018 by nearly 4 percentage points. Because the Maryland native is a relative newcomer to Montana, critics in the state have dubbed him “Maryland Matt.”
For the most part, Mr. Sheehy has ignored Mr. Rosendale’s jibes, although he referred to him in a September “Fox and Friends” appearance as “an insider that nobody likes” and “a career politician–eight offices in 13 years.”
Mr. Sheehy is not directly commenting on Mr. Rosendale’s role in the budget drama, keeping his focus on defeating Mr. Tester, campaign spokesperson Katie Martin told The Epoch Times in late September.
“We need a new generation of conservative leadership to help bring Montanans more jobs, cheap gas, a secure border, a strong economy, and a sane foreign policy that puts America First,” Mr. Sheehy said in a Oct. 3 X post.
Without mentioning Mr. Rosendale, Mr. Daines—who is steering GOP Senate campaign strategies—said he and other budget hard-liners’ hardball tactics undermined the validity of their primary objection: too much federal spending.
“Shutting down the government is not the answer to Congress’ fiscal insanity and it only hurts Montanans,” Mr. Daines said in a statement. “I voted to keep the government open, keep our National Parks open, pay our military and border patrol agents and continue a much-deserved increase in pay for our Montana wildland firefighters.
“Montanans should never have to pay the price for Congress’ broken budget process,” he added. “I will continue to fight to restore order to our budget process and secure Biden’s out-of-control southern border.”
