Trump warns that GOP senators who break from him will lose reelection
by Katherine Doyle, White House Correspondent |
| June 19, 2020 12:12 PM
President Trump said he could leverage his base of support against senators who move to distance themselves from him, including incumbent Republicans who'll share a ballot with him in the fall.
“We will, on occasion, have some senators that want to be cute and they don’t want to embrace their president,†Trump said in an interview with Politico before rattling off a list of Republicans who lost their seats after breaking away from him.
Trump assessed a chart that showed him outpacing senators he shared a primary ballot with this year. "Wow, that’s great in North Carolina, huh?" he said of placing 16 points ahead of Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is up for reelection in November.
“If they don’t embrace, they’re going to lose, because, you know, I have a very hard base," Trump said. "I have the strongest base people have ever seen.
“How did it work out for the great senator of Nevada? Not too good," Trump said of Nevada Republican Dean Heller. Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, the president said, "went from 54 percent to 3."
And then, there was Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, who volunteered his support of Trump early before announcing himself as a leading critic. “So, anyway, I went after him,†Trump said. “No longer a senator.â€
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-warns-that-gop-senators-who-break-from-him-will-lose-reelection
