I know we’ve all become somewhat numbed by all of The Orange Menace’s outrageous comments. Practically nothing he can say that would surprise us now, right?
But this story from Politico must be bothering at least a few folks in the GOP Establishment:
Trump on Saturday said it’d be “nice” to have a Republican majority as president, but said he doesn’t care if senators endorse him.
“That’s fine,” he said. “I’m not going to campaign [for them].”
[emphasis added]
Wait a second. He’s not even going to campaign with (or for?) GOP Senators? Or did he mean that he won’t campaign with those who don’t endorse him?
Now if you take a look at the Crystal Ball (Sabato’s) map above, you’ll see that there are two clearly-endangered Repub Sen.s (as if you didn’t know already): Kirk of IL, and Johnson of WI (who is running against Russ — you knew that, too).
Kirk finally decided that he’d had enough on Tuesday, and bailed out due to The Orange Menace’s comments on Judge Curiel.
Johnson, however still says he’ll "support but not endorse" Toddler Trump. What a courageous stance. Hat tip and all that.
All three incumbents from toss-up states are also in “support the nominee” la-la land: Ayotte (NH); Portman (OH); and Toomey (PA).
There is only one incumbent from a “likely” state, and that’s Grassley of IA, who recently made a feeble attempt to defend Trump’s racist comments, after very recently confirming that he will endorse Deranged Donald in a phone interview with a local paper.
Of course Trump could change his mind. He changes his mind as often as a traffic light changes colors - except with a whole lot less consistency.
Still, for a GOP Establishment reeling from Trump’s refusal to play nice on any number of issues related to party unity, this has to be yet another fresh blow from the sucker puncher.
EDIT: In response to some of the comments, I’d just like to add this list of Repub incumbent Sen.s who are running in states where Trump seems to be quite popular: Shelby (AL); Murkowski (AK); Boozman (AR); Crapo (ID); Paul (KY); Mooran (KS); Hoevan (ND); and Lankford (OK). All of these are “safe R” states in the GE Pres. race.
If you add in some other “lean/likely R” states, you get: Blunt (MO); Scott (SC); Thune (SD); and Lee (UT).
So that’s 8-12 Repub Sen.s running in states that Trump is likely to win. That’s a lot of Sen.s who would probably like to raise a little extra cash. Many have not endorsed Trump yet, or are feeling queasy about him. But to say that he’s entirely not welcome as it were — nope, that’s a bit of a stretch. Senators nearly always need or at least want more money, no matter how safe their seats are.