Tiffany Terrell
November 09, 2022
Donald Trump (Photo via AFP)
When Election Night arrived on Tuesday, November 8, Republican strategists were hoping for a massive red wave like the ones the GOP enjoyed under Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1994 and Democratic President Barack Obama in 2010. But on Wednesday morning, November 9, with votes still being counted, it was up in the air which party will control a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in 2023.
One conservative Republican who was willing to admit that the red tsunami didn’t materialize in the 2022 midterms was Marc Thiessen. Some pundits on Fox News have insisted that November 8 was a great night for Republicans, but Thiessen, on the right-wing cable news channel, candidly described the 2022 midterms as a disappointment for Republicans, watch below:
Some of Thiessen’s GOP talking points about Biden can easily be fact-checked and debunked. For example, calling Biden “the least popular president since Harry Truman” is hard to back up in light of what Pew Research’s Amina Dunn reported on October 20, 2022: “Biden’s job rating is fairly comparable to Ronald Reagan’s (42%) and Bill Clinton’s (41%) at this stage of their presidencies, but lower than Barack Obama’s (46%). Those three presidents lost ground over their first two years in office.”
President Joe Biden publicly savored the results of the midterm elections on Wednesday after Democrats defied expectations and held off a Republican “red wave” that pollsters and analysts had been forecasting for weeks.
With several races still too close to call, Biden said at a White House news conference that voters spoke clearly. They're still frustrated about the economy, but they like the progress Democrats have made. They voted "to preserve our democracy and protect the right to chose."
"It was a good day for America,” he said.
Regardless of which party ends up controlling Congress, Biden said, he’s “ready to compromise with Republicans where it makes sense." He said he will invite the leaders of both parties to the White House after he returns from a multi-nation foreign trip.
But Biden also made clear he's not looking for a course correction.
"I’m not going to change anything in any fundamental way," he said.
Even a small Republican majority in either chamber would prevent President Biden and Democrats from passing sweeping legislation along party lines. Bipartisan standoffs over government funding and the debt ceiling could be common, but major legislative breakthroughs will be rare.
A GOP takeover of the Senate would also force Biden to find Republican support for his next slate of administration nominees.
GOP on 'the cusp of an internal war' and Trump is 'willing to burn it all down': Maggie Haberman
November 11, 2022
Donald Trump (Photo of Trump via Agence France-Presse)
Former President Donald Trump is more vulnerable than he has been since shortly after the Jan. 6 insurrection, but he survived that to remain the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, and he seems to think he can do it again.
The former president's hand-picked candidates fared poorly in Tuesday's midterm election, and the GOP stands poised to win narrow majorities, at best, in the House and Senate, and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman examined Trump's position as party leader.
"The party," Haberman tweeted, "is in the cusp of a broader internal war and not clear how that plays out."
The Department of Justice continues to investigate Trumps role in the insurrection and his handling of classified materials at Mar-a-Lago, and the pause leading up to the election could be over.
READ MORE: 'Welcome to Republicans in disarray': GOP tearing itself apart after Trump tanks another election
"Trump has extremely few major donors who want to do anything for him right now and a number of them are having active conversations about the best way to stop him," Haberman said. "But. Again…sound familiar? Trump has made clear he’s willing to burn it all down if he doesn’t get what he wants, which is maintaining his grip on the product line he’s been developing for six years: The Republican Party."
GOP lawmakers and other elected officials will be forced to choose sides, she said, but some of Trump's strongest allies in Congress aren't particularly influential.
"Anyone not a [prosecutor] who claims to know definitively what DOJ is going to do on either J6 or documents case is pushing a line," Haberman wrote. "The special master was the only play Trump had, and it’s brought some short term embarrassment. But also bought him time."
November 11, 2022
After the GOP’s underperformance in the midterm elections, the question remains whether Republicans will learn their lesson or be content as year-in, year-out losers.
Former President Donald Trump showed in 2020 and 2018 — and probably also in 2016 — that he is a drag on GOP candidates down the ballot. He oversaw a loss of 40 House seats in the 2018 midterm elections, and he went on to lose to bumbling old “Sleepy Joe” Biden in 2020 even as Republicans outperformed him. In both his 2020 loss and his 2016 win, Trump was a drag on GOP candidates in tight races, who consistently finished with higher vote totals. He probably only won the presidency because Hillary Clinton managed to be more unlikable and incompetent than he was.
REPUBLICAN WHO SCORED UPSET NY VICTORY PRODS PARTY TO MOVE ON FROM TRUMP
Trump showed that he was a loser once again on Tuesday, costing Republicans several races thanks to the terrible candidates he backed in party primaries or candidates who crafted their campaigns in his image. Trump’s terrible candidates in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire cost Republicans down-ballot House races as well as definitive control of the Senate. In fact, Republicans may lose the Senate outright thanks to Trump’s picks in Arizona and Georgia.
But some Republicans are content to just keep losing. Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who wants to become the House GOP whip, declared he supported Trump. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz unsurprisingly wants Trump to be the nominee in 2024.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican conference chairwoman who oversaw the disappointing midterm results, outright endorsed Trump for 2024 to the New York Times. “I am proud to endorse Donald Trump for president in 2024,” Stefanik said in a statement. “It is time for Republicans to unite around the most popular Republican in America who has a proven track record of conservative governance.”
Trump left office with an approval rating of 34%. He is nowhere near being “the most popular Republican in America.” He isn’t even the most popular Republican in the state of Florida.
It is an utterly embarrassing commentary on the Republican Party that Stefanik is “proud” to endorse this level of mediocrity. Republicans such as Stefanik seem content with losing the House, Senate, and White House in a span of three years while falling on their face time and time again trying to win them back. Trump gave away the Senate in 2021, gleefully, and was cheerleading the demise of some Republican candidates who were trying to win it back.
Trump enjoys losing. Stefanik, Banks, and Gaetz apparently do, too.
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Republicans can learn the lesson from the midterm elections and move on to candidates who aren’t electorally toxic. They can run popular conservatives for president in 2024 who aren’t 76 years old and lost to Joe Biden. Or they can learn nothing and continue to be the party of losers, and continue to give Democrats everything they want in election after election.
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