Prominent figures in the never-Trump movement were close to giddy in the wake of Tuesday’s election drubbing for the GOP, pronouncing it a long-awaited comeuppance for a party that leashed itself to President Trump.
Some took delight in mocking losing Republican candidates on social media, while others settled scores with I-told-you-so posts. And some just basked in being right.
“Six months ago, I predicted a political tsunami,” Steve Schmidt, who was a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain, said on Substack. “I believed Trump’s coalition was far weaker than it appeared. I believed Americans were preparing to judge his corruption, his cruelty, his war and his economic failures. I believed that judgment would reach into states and races the political establishment had written off. Yesterday, it did.”
People were interested in these podcasts
Mike Murphy, another GOP campaign consultant who worked for McCain and Jeb Bush, said the election meant the “Trump show was finally canceled.”
“Trump has brought a Chornobyl-level disaster to the Republican Party tonight,” he said.
The White House argued Mr. Trump wasn’t to blame for the losses, noting that poor candidates failed to excite voters.
White House officials pointed out that when Mr. Trump himself is on the ballot, Republicans turn out.
The never-Trumpers saw it differently.
Tim Miller called the decision to launch a war with Iran a “policy that was so monumentally stupid that they have unraveled the entire Republican coalition.”
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.