(NewsNation) — A SWAT team barges into a home. Music intensifies as weapons are drawn. A man carrying a gun emerges from the light to look directly into the camera and says, “Join the MAGA crew. Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.”
It’s a scene from a campaign video for the frontrunner for U.S. Senate in Missouri, Republican candidate Eric Greitens.
The disgraced ex-governor left office in a scandal and now he’s likely to win a Senate seat. Greitens isn’t the only one to call out “RINOs” or what some refer to as “Republican In Name Only.”
At the Texas GOP convention, hecklers confronted lawmakers Cornyn, Cruz and Crenshaw.
“You’re a RINO,” some critics called out to elected officials in attendance.
Have extreme candidates cost the Republican Party elections and is the party divided between moderates and those on the extreme right?
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and NewsNation senior contributor George Will weighed in Monday while appearing on NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert.”
“I think the problem for Republican candidates is this: A lot of them don’t like Trump. They’re not Trumpers, but they’re frightened, and looking frightened. They look weak, and looking weak, they look scared. And it’s very hard to present yourself as someone who promises real leadership if you’re frightened,” Will said.
“Every Republican is going to be asked if they agree with X, Y and Z who makes some lunatic statement. That’s life. That’s the playing field on which Republicans operate and they just have to act accordingly.”
The ad from Greitens, which has since been removed on Facebook, comes at a time of renewed focus on violence in politics following fatal mass shootings and threats to government officials.
U.S. Senate candidate Evan McMullin called Greitens out on Twitter, saying: “This is one of the most unpatriotic, irresponsible ads I’ve ever seen. You and your fellow extremists may have taken over the GOP, but you won’t take America.”
Two weeks ago, a man carrying a gun, a knife and zip ties was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house after threatening to kill the justice. Around the same time, a gunman killed a retired county judge in Wisconsin before fatally shooting himself, and he had a list that included the names of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.
On Sunday, Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of two Republicans serving on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, said he recently received a letter at his home threatening “to execute me, as well as my wife and 5-month-old child.”
Still, the firestorm enveloping Greitens follows a well-worn playbook that has helped other Republican candidates juice their standing: Make an inflammatory statement or ad, wait for a backlash to develop, then cite the backlash while trying to raise money from grassroots donors online.
GOP candidates must also face and in a sense answer to those with extreme views due to the power of grassroots organizing and small dollar fundraising. And some say it could be a sort of mirror image of Democratic Party problems.