RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel put on her rosiest-colored glasses to deliver a pep talk for Republicans facing a disastrous year in 2018 and potential primary challenges to Donald Trump in 2020.
Visiting Fox & Friends this Wednesday morning, McDaniel insisted that the poll numbers are “very positive” for Trump and for his tax cuts in “battleground states.”
Unfortunately for McDaniel, “battleground states” are not that relevant to whether Democrats will take individual House districts within states in November. Predictably, not one of the three cohosts pointed that out.
But when asked about whether there might be “a base for a [primary] challenge” to Trump in 2020, McDaniel really lost her grip on reality:
MCDANIEL: The base of our party is so pleased with the president right now. This year of accomplishments, this year in review. You look at the judicial appointments, you look at what he’s done for veterans, our military’s getting a pay raise for the first time. Our country is safer, our economy’s doing better. Jobs are coming back. Wages are going up. I just can’t imagine anyone running against a record like this – and this is just the first year! Imagine where we’ll be next November as we see our economy continue to grow under the great policies coming from Republicans.
FACT CHECK: the base of the party is not so pleased with Trump. In May, FiveThirtyEight reported that Trump’s base is shrinking:
Far from having unconditional love from his base, Trump has already lost almost a third of his strong support. And voters who strongly disapprove of Trump outnumber those who strongly approve of him by about a 2-to-1 ratio, which could presage an “enthusiasm gap” that works against Trump at the midterms.
In August, FiveThirtyEight found that “Trump’s reluctant voters are getting more reluctant.”
[T]he percentage of reluctant Trump voters who approve of the president’s job is down 11 percentage points, from 74 percent before [in early June]. That’s a fairly substantial slide.
In October, FiveThirtyEight noted these statistics:
Trump’s net approval rating among his base of rural voters, according to Ipsos polling, has fallen from +17 percentage points to zero since the beginning of his presidency.
Trump’s approval rating has also dropped in every state since the beginning of his presidency, according to Morning Consult.
I don’t know whether there will be any primary challenges to Trump in 2020 nor do I want to predict whether Democrats will take back the House in November. I do know that no matter what McDaniel says, she and her BFFs at Fox News have to be worried about the upcoming elections.
Watch McDaniel’s BS above, from the December 27, 2017 Fox & Friends.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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