[ad_1]
Shortly after Donald Trump insisted to reporters in Ohio that he expected a “red wave” on Election Day, Nov. 3, it was reported Saturday that he told Republican donors this week that it would be “difficult” for the party. stay in the Senate.
Trump is behind Joe Biden in most battlefield and national state polls. The Democrats have the House of Representatives and hope to keep it, while many forecasters think they have a good chance of retaking the Senate, that the Republicans are 53-47, thus achieving a unified government.
“I think the Senate is really tough,” the Washington Post told donors in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday before its last debate against Biden, according to an anonymous aide. “The Senate is very tough.”
The Post said Trump also insisted that Republicans “are going to take back the House.” With Democrats holding that chamber for 232-197, few forecasters believe there is much chance of that happening.
Senate Republicans face defeat in Colorado, Maine, Arizona, and perhaps North Carolina. The supposedly safest seats in Georgia, Iowa and Montana appear to be far from safe. Trump reportedly told donors that North Carolina would remain and Alabama would return, but said there were “a couple” of senators he didn’t want to help.
“There are a couple of senators that I can’t really get involved with,” the Post quoted him as saying. “I just can’t do it. You lose your soul if you do it. I can’t help some of them. I don’t want to help some of them.”
Trump has clashed with senators, including Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who offered harsh criticism and predicted “a Republican bloodbath in the Senate.”
Sasse is one of the conservatives watching the post-Trump presidential election. Others, generally loyal but under pressure at the polls, like John Cornyn in Texas and Martha McSally in Arizona, have made cautious proposals to be considered independent.
Even Mitch McConnell, the ruthless architect of the Republicans’ push to install federal judges under Trump, has said he believes his party has a “50-50” chance of staying in control. The 78-year-old Majority Leader, slated for re-election despite a tough fight in Kentucky, has dismissed questions about his health after he appeared with severe bruises on his hands and face.
Control of the Senate has allowed Republicans to rush the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the Supreme Court, tipping her 6-3 in favor of the Conservatives.
If the White House and Senate are lost, a reactionary court would be Republicans’ bulwark against a Biden legislative agenda that could include reforms in the court and Senate.
The court is due to hear a challenge to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, on November 10. Trump has said he wants justices to bring down the ACA, thereby depriving millions of health care in a pandemic and bringing his own momentum to defeat HIV to its knees.
A senator who initially opposed Barrett’s pressure said during Saturday’s debate that she would vote to confirm. When the nomination hits the ground Monday, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski said, “I’ll be a yes. I have no doubt about his intellect … I have no doubt about his ability to do the job. “
Generally an advocate for abortion rights Democrats say Barrett will threaten, Murkowksi had said a new judge should not be appointed before the election.
