Research/Study
The MAGA media campaign to chase “RINO” Charlie Spies out of the RNC
Many of Trump's media allies saw Spies as an enemy because he refused to say the 2020 election was rigged
Published
Right-wing media allies of former President Donald Trump leveled a sustained and ultimately successful campaign to remove conservative lawyer Charlie Spies from his role as chief counsel at the Republican National Committee due to his perceived hostility toward the MAGA movement.
According to NBC News, Spies was ousted from his senior position at the RNC after Trump allies — including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and conspiracy theory junksite The Gateway Pundit — pushed the former president to abandon him.
Several other key figures in MAGA media also targeted Spies, in part because of his unwillingness to claim that the 2020 election was stolen and for his past work with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump in the Republican presidential primary. Spies has also worked for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and other establishment Republicans figures. Some right-wing websites attacked Spies for his supposed ties to Democratic Party lawyer Marc Elias, a frequent boogeyman for conservatives. MAGA figures regularly and disparagingly referred to Spies as a “normie” and a “RINO” — a Republican in name only — because of his work history.