Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Trump and Aides Getting 'Spooked' About a Coming GOP Midterms 'Slaughter'
Trump and Aides Getting ‘Spooked’ About a Coming GOP Midterms ‘Slaughter’
Publicly, the talk is of retaining control of the House. Privately, they’re getting ready for Democratic-led investigations.
Asawin Suebsaeng
11.01.18 4:10 AM ET
In recent months, President Trump has insisted that a “red wave” is coming this November and that Republicans would hold onto, and even expand, their majorities in the House and the Senate.
But as the election has gotten closer, the president’s outlook has increasingly soured, and that optimism he once exhibited from the campaign trail has been replaced by tangible fear over what a Democratic House next year might mean to his administration and inner circle.
“He’s definitely more spooked than he was before,” a senior West Wing official told The Daily Beast. “Several of us are expecting to spend more time [testifying] on the Hill soon.”
In public, Trump world is still arguing that Republicans will hold on to control of the House, with the president triumphantly tweeting taunts at the media for failing to acknowledge just how big an impact he is having in motivating voters.
“He thinks it’s going to be close… We’ve all believed it’s going to be close,” Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. Giuliani serves as a lead Trump attorney for the Russia probe, but he has also advised Trump on political matters. Trump, he said, thinks Republicans are “going to win” but that the president has acknowledged that “it’s much closer than people realize.”
But three sources close to the president say that Trump and his aides are privately far more pessimistic. Recently, the president has stressed in conversations with confidants that if things go south for the GOP in November, he won’t take the blame and is prepared to scapegoat other party leaders. In Trump’s West Wing, words such as “slaughter” and “massacre” have come up among political, policy, and communications advisers in their private predictions of what this month could bring, according to three sources present for such conversations.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-aides-getting-spooked-about-a-coming-gop-midterms-slaughter?ref=home
