Privately, Republicans began to reach out to McDaniel — including her uncle, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who exchanged texts with her over the weekend. While Romney said McDaniel is a “wonderful person and doing her very best,” he said he had made clear to her how he viewed the matter.

“It could not have been a more inappropriate message,” Romney said before adding: “Anything that my party does that comes across as being stupid is not going to help us.”

Republicans want to make the midterms a referendum on Biden, the economy, crime and school closures during the pandemic — not a rehash of January 6, 2021. But with Trump still obsessed over his election loss and hell-bent on punishing his perceived enemies in the party, Republicans keep finding themselves sucked back into the former President’s 2020 conspiracies and lies of a stolen election. And it’s especially frustrating for Republicans at a time when they see Biden’s poll numbers slump and they have historical trends on their side.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he had spoken with McDaniel about the controversy, who had told him that she “condemned the violence” but had argued they were criticizing the panel for targeting individuals who hadn’t engaged in violence that day.

“I think all of us up here want to talk about forward and not backward,” Graham said. “We want to talk about why we should be in charge of the House and the Senate, and when you’re not talking about that, that takes you in the wrong direction.”