‘Trump’s going to be gone’: Republicans look beyond president as they blame him for midterm rout
WASHINGTON, DC: The crushing election defeat has prompted a blame game within the GOP, as several Republicans appear to be breaking the ranks and blaming the president’s political style for the results, while Trump shifts the onus onto “lazy candidates.”
The midterm election turned into a complete bloodbath for the GOP, with Democrats winning control of both chambers of Congress, gaining more than two dozen House seats and flipping at least seven Senate seats.
Republicans begin pointing fingers at Trump for loss
The once unthinkable has unfolded inside the GOP, as several Republican leaders have said that Trump’s performance and political style contributed to the defeat.
Some pointed to the Iran war and its impact on gas and grocery prices. Others pointed to the president’s demeanor.
“There’s a little bit of a reckoning in the Republican Party about where they go,” said Matt Dole, chair of the GOP in deep-red Licking County, Ohio.
“I think you’re going to see a part of the Republican Party advocate for a return to normalcy, which is not repudiating Trump’s ideology and policies, but will repudiate Trump’s style.”
Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles, who lost the race, made an eyebrow-raising remark linking the party’s future to Trump’s eventual departure, saying the president would be gone soon.
“It sounds a little ironic,” Charles said.
“But I am nevertheless optimistic for the future because Trump’s going to be gone in two years,” Charles told Politico.
Some Republicans turned their ire on the GOP-controlled Congress.
“The Republican Party needs to have a conversation with itself about how to listen to the voters and present meaningful policy reform that impacts their lives,” said Gina Swoboda, the former chair of Arizona’s Republican Party and a longtime Trump ally. “This Congress did not do a single thing that I can name that meaningfully impacted the working class and middle class.”
Trump shifts blame on several factors, including ‘lazy’ candidates
Besides touting that his presence on the ballot could have helped the GOP's performance, Trump blamed Fox News coverage and “lazy” candidates for the party's poor showing.
Trump also targeted Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, calling him a “RINO,” while refusing to take responsibility for the party's losses. He claimed Republicans would have won “in a landslide” if he had been on the ballot.
Abbott lost to Democratic candidate Gina Hinojosa.
Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz blamed the GOP’s poor performance on candidates he called “uninspiring, lazy and thoroughly ineffective communicators.”
He specifically criticized Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), whose campaign struggled to gain traction against Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Several deep red seats, like Texas, South Carolina, Iowa, and Kansas, turned blue in November 3 midterms polls.
