JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

JavaScript

var mystringwithBRin = '&lt;div id="grouplogo_nav"&gt;<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;ul&gt;<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a class="group_hlfppt" target="_blank" href="http://www.hlfppt.org/"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;/ul&gt;<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &lt;/div&gt;';

var tempDiv = document.createElement('div');
tempDiv.innerHTML = mystringwithBRin;
var nodes = tempDiv.childNodes;
for(var nodeId=nodes.length-1; nodeId >= 0; --nodeId) {
    if(nodes[nodeId].tagName === 'br') {
        tempDiv.removeChild(nodes[nodeId]);
    }
}
var newStr = tempDiv.innerHTML;

document.writeln('<pre>'+newStr+'</pre>');