THEN VS. NOW: “Republicans See ‘Grim’ Senate Map” and Scramble to Rewrite Their Records of Enabling Trump’s Failed Pandemic Response

April: Senate Republicans Claim “No Daylight” Between Themselves and Trump’s Response

A new Associated Press report looks at the growing “GOP anxiety” of losing their Senate majority as vulnerable Republican incumbents make a last-minute scramble to “distance themselves from President Donald Trump” after months of fawningly praising his disastrous pandemic response that has resulted in more than 210,000 American deaths.

But while vulnerable Senate Republicans now attempt to put space between themselves and Trump just weeks before the election, the truth is that they’ve repeatedly defended the president’s unpopular handling of the pandemic response, argued that he did a “tremendous job,” and proclaimed “there is no daylight” between themselves and the White House’s coronavirus response. Senate Republicans have spent the entire pandemic dutifully praising Trump’s mismanagement of the crisis – and, as headlines from earlier this year show, they already made the political calculation to “praise Trump’s pandemic response” and bet on Trump’s handling of the crisis in order to try to keep their seats.

“With less than four weeks until Election Day, vulnerable Senate Republicans are suddenly trying to put daylight between themselves and Trump’s historic failure to get this deadly pandemic under control,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “After spending months lying to their constituents in service of Trump’s ego and their own political careers, Senate Republicans’ desperate eleventh-hour scramble comes too late to save their flailing campaigns.”

The bottom line: it’s too late for vulnerable Senate Republicans to rewrite their records of praising and enabling Trump’s failed pandemic response:

• Senator Martha McSally (AZ): “I appreciate the president talking to the American people from the Oval Office to show his decisiveness, his resolve, his compassion, and the leadership that America has and that we’re the best equipped to deal with the crisis.” [Fox Business, 3/12/20]

• Senator Cory Gardner (CO): “The president took unprecedented action at the very front end of coronavirus.” [KNUS, 3/12/20]

• Senator David Perdue (GA): “President Trump has taken unprecedented action to protect the American people in the midst of this crisis.” [Office of Sen. David Perdue, 7/2/20]

• Senator Kelly Loeffler (GA): “I could not be more proud of how the president has handled” the coronavirus response. [YouTube, Senator Kelly Loeffler, 3/6/20]

• Senator Joni Ernst (IA): “I think he took some really great initial steps and … the left was just hammering him on that and it was the right thing to do. And so, I think the President has done quite well.” [CNN, 5/19/20]

• Congressman Roger Marshall (KS): “Look, we had a great response.” [Fox 4 Kansas City, 7/29/20]

• Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY): “I think the president is doing very, very well [on coronavirus]… I think he’ll keep it up, and I’m proud of the way he’s been handling it.” [Hugh Hewitt Show, 3/31/20]

• Senator Susan Collins (ME): “The president did a lot that was right in the beginning.” [Bangor Daily News, 4/2/20]

• Failed politician John James (MI): “Trump has ‘done everything that he has thought was best’ when it comes to a national COVID-19 response.” [WWMT, 5/6/20]

• Senator Steve Daines (MT): “President Trump has led boldly…So I’m grateful for his leadership in this very difficult time.” [Helena Independent Record, 8/8/20]

• Senator Thom Tillis (NC): “I think the president’s taking every step he can to help the health and safety of the people in the United States.” [Twitter, @TheHill, 3/12/20]

• Senator Lindsey Graham (SC): “I think [Trump has] done a really good job.” [Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, 5/5/20]

• Senator John Cornyn (TX): “[Trump has] done as good a job as you can under the circumstances.” [CNN, 9/10/20]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Associated Press: Republicans see ‘grim’ Senate map and edge away from Trump

Key Points:

• Vulnerable Republicans are increasingly taking careful, but clear, steps to distance themselves from President Donald Trump, one sign of a new wave of GOP anxiety that the president’s crisis-to-crisis reelection bid could bring down Senate candidates across the country.

• In key races from Arizona to Texas, Kansas and Maine, Republican senators long afraid of the president’s power to strike back at his critics are starting to break with the president — particularly over his handling of the pandemic — in the final stretch of the election. GOP strategists say the distancing reflects a startling erosion of support over a brutal 10-day stretch for Trump, starting with his seething debate performance when he did not clearly denounce a white supremacist group through his hospitalization with COVID-19 and attempts to downplay the virus’s danger.

• “The Senate map is looking exceedingly grim,” said one major GOP donor, Dan Eberhart.

• Republican prospects for holding its 53-47 majority have been darkening for months. But recent upheaval at the White House has accelerated the trend, according to conversations with a half-dozen GOP strategists and campaign advisers, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose internal deliberations.

• The strategists noted the decision to rush to fill the Supreme Court vacancy with conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett has not swung voters toward the GOP as hoped. Several noted internal polls suggested Republican-leaning, undecided voters were particularly turned off by the president’s debate performance and his conduct since being diagnosed with the coronavirus.

• “I think a lot of Republicans are worried that this is a jailbreak moment, and people who have been sitting on the fence looking for a rationale to stick with the president are instead abandoning the ship,” said Rory Cooper, a Republican strategist and frequent Trump critic.

• Collins began airing an ad this week that urges voters to vote for her “no matter who you’re voting for for president.”

• In Arizona, another endangered Republican, Sen. Martha McSally, struggled when asked whether she was proud to serve under the president during her Air Force career.

• Democrats have long considered Maine and Arizona, along with Colorado and North Carolina, top targets in their effort to gain the four seats they need to win Senate control. (It’s only three if Biden wins the White House.) But the race for Senate majority has been widening into reliably Republican states, now including Iowa, Alaska, Kansas and Montana… Even South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, is suddenly scrambling.

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