Don't get cocky
Get together
Get to work
Get shit done
Legendary GOP operative Karl Rove warned that President Donald Trump may tank Republicans’ chances in November’s midterm elections in a scathing new column for The Wall Street Journal.
Under the headline, “Gerrymandering Isn’t Enough for the GOP,” Rove noted that redistricting efforts don’t put the GOP majority in safe territory,” as “Democrats lead on the generic congressional ballot by 6.6 points in Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin average of recent polls and by 11 in the latest New York Times/Siena survey.”
And Rove thinks he knows who’s responsible for the widening gap.
“The GOP’s chances will get worse if President Trump’s approval numbers keep declining. They’re already dangerously low. Wednesday, his approval hit 39.8% in the RealClearPolitics average, the lowest of his second term so far,” he wrote before observing that the administration’s “message discipline on the Iran war” has been lacking.
“Making things worse are Mr. Trump’s erratic late-night missives. The president comes across more as a heckler at a UFC match than as a reassuring wartime commander in chief,” he added.
“Mr. Trump is also mucking up his domestic messaging. He quickly swamped the good with bad,” continued Rove. “His announcement Monday that he was reducing healthcare costs by adding 600 generic drugs to the government’s on-line low-cost drugstore was a winner. But long after the memory of that announcement fades, voters will recall Tuesday’s news conference at the White House ballroom construction site. The president’s promoting his $1 billion request for White House ‘security measures’ won’t convert voters. Nor will bragging that ‘there will never be another building like this,’ especially with Americans upset about $5-a-gallon gasoline, which Mr. Trump dismissed as ‘peanuts.'”
The Fox News contributor went on to urge Trump to continue fundraising for candidates, but refrain from hitting the campaign trail himself to “let Republican candidates create distance from the president.”
“Let them disagree with his $1 billion ballroom and $1.8 billion slush fund that critics are concerned could go to Jan. 6 felons,” he urged.
“The more undisciplined the White House messages on war and the economy, the more at risk GOP candidates will be. The more Mr. Trump thrusts himself into the campaign, the more damage he’ll do to Republicans and his own cause,” concluded Rove. “Gerrymandering helped Republicans. But the president’s actions are helping Democrats. That could give Democrats the House.”
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