Former President Trump’s incendiary comments about deploying the military and using other powers of the executive branch to pursue his political enemies, including a sitting member of Congress, is putting downballot Republican candidates on the defensive.
GOP strategists have said for months that the fates of Senate and House Republican candidates are largely tied to Trump’s performance.
Republicans have grown more optimistic about their prospects of capturing Democratic-held Senate seats in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as Trump has gained ground on Vice President Harris in those states.
But Trump’s provocative comments about deploying the military to handle the “enemy from within” and “radical-left lunatics,” such as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a prosecutor during Trump’s first impeachment trial, have put Republican candidates in an awkward spot.
“He certainly makes it difficult for downballot Republicans because people [in the media] will continually ask them to react to something outrageous Donald Trump has said when they really want to concentrate on their own race and their own message,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres.
Trump defended his comments during a Fox News town hall that aired Wednesday.
“I thought it was a nice presentation. That wasn’t unhinged,” he told Fox News host Harris Faulkner when the host played a clip of his controversial remarks.
“It is the enemy from within, and they’re very dangerous,” Trump asserted. “They’re Marxists and communists and fascists, and they’re sick.
“These people — they’re so sick, and they’re so evil,” he said, singling out Schiff and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
A Republican strategist who requested anonymity to comment candidly on Trump’s remarks called them a problem for candidates downballot.
“It would be really disturbing to most Republican legislators if that were to occur because that’s not how we work as a country, that’s not how we behave as a democracy,” the strategist said of deploying the military against political enemies.
