Longtime right-wing Republican activist David Bossie reportedly pushed the recent Republican National Committee resolution that accused the House committee investigating Jan. 6 of persecuting “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” The resolution, which also censured Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two Republican members of the committee, has drawn widespread criticism and stirred conflict within GOP circles.
Bossie, a longtime right-wing propagandist and collaborator with former Trump aide Steve Bannon, had reportedly been working with Wyoming GOP Chair William “Frank” Earthorne to get the RNC to kick Cheney and Kinzinger out of the party completely. The censure language in the resolution that ultimately passed was a compromise reached behind closed doors.
The RNC is also planning to fund a primary challenge against Cheney, with Bossie calling it a “one-two punch” against her.
Bossie was elected to the Republican National Committee representing Maryland in 2016, the same year he served as deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump. There was a bit of a falling out between the two in 2019 over a Bossie fundraising scheme, but in 2020, after refusing to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump turned to Bossie to help lead the campaign’s efforts to challenge the outcome of the election. Bossie is reportedly leading RNC efforts to assert greater control over any 2024 presidential debates.
Bossie, listed as president and board chair of the group Citizens United, has written several books and produced multiple films attacking Democratic candidates. It was Citizens United’s effort to run an anti-Hillary Clinton film during the 2008 campaign that led to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling that weakened campaign finance laws and ushered a flood of dark money into U.S. elections.
During the 2016 Republican convention, Bossie and Bannon helped launch what Bannon called a “Christian war film” seemingly designed to incite fear and anger among the GOP’s conservative Christian base.
Vanity Fair reported last week that sources told the magazine that Bossie is making a bid to take over the RNC from current chair Ronna McDaniel, though Bossie denied that ambition. According to Vanity Fair, a “veteran Republican operative close to the RNC” downplayed Bossie’s chances, saying, “The reason Ronna got reelected was the members were really worried that some Trump grifter, like Bossie, was going to take over.”
In 2018, Bossie was briefly suspended from Fox News after telling a Black fellow panelist, “You’re out of your cotton-picking mind.”
