President Donald Trump has privately predicted that Republicans will suffer a major defeat in Tuesday’s midterm elections, losing control of both chambers of Congress, CNN reported.
Speaking on “Erin Burnett OutFront” on Monday, CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes said Trump has seen the polling, the candidates and the political landscape, and none of it looks good for Republicans.
According to Holmes, Trump has told some allies and advisers that he expects the worst-case scenario, with Democrats winning both the House and the Senate. She said he has also discussed what that would mean for governing, for investigations into his administration, and for potential impeachment hearings.
Holmes said Trump came close to admitting as much in his final pre-election speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday. “For some reason the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms,” Trump said. “But we gave this a very strong shot.”
Holmes described the remark as sounding almost like a concession before the results were in. White House sources told her that how Trump would respond to Democrats taking both chambers is anyone’s guess.
The report follows weeks of downbeat assessments from inside Trump’s political operation. In September, one Trump adviser told CNN the midterms were going to be “rough,” adding that the best realistic outcome would be a repeat of 2022, when Democrats narrowly lost the House but held the Senate. Last month, Trump told supporters at a rally that if Republicans lose, “they’re going to blame me.”
Trump has also urged his supporters to vote as if his own name were on the ballot. Polls ahead of Election Day showed Democrats leading on the generic congressional ballot, with the president’s approval rating near record lows.
