Michael Steele: 'Rudderless' GOP hasn't explained how to 'move the country forward'

Former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele spoke with MSNBC's Ari Melber on "The Beat" Friday — and warned that the party he led over a decade ago doesn't currently have a direction or a message for voters.

This comes as the 2024 presidential election draws nearer, and former President Donald Trump currently appears poised in polls to sweep the nomination to run a rematch with President Joe Biden, who defeated him in 2020.

"What does the Republican Party and conservatism stand for now?" asked Melber.

"The party right now is a little bit rudderless with its platform," said Steele, adding, "It doesn't have an official party platform. They didn't pass one in 2020."

The refusal of the GOP to pass a platform in 2020 was largely a function of leadership having no goal at the time other than simply standing with former President Donald Trump and enacting whatever agenda he desired — but this isn't a sustainable way to run a party, Steele argued, even if Trump remains the party leader for the short-term future.

In addition to policy direction, argued Steele, the GOP "has to lay out with clarity some of the — not just the general big policy themes that they want to go after Joe Biden on. It also has to speak fundamentally to the country about how the party is going to move the nation forward."

"What philosophical anchors will it have?" Steele added. "Not just the traditional tropes around, small government and all of that."

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