Costello: If We Lose in Nov., More Members Will Realize Standing Behind Trump Is Not ‘Sustainable’ for Our Party

EXCERPT:

HUNT: "One thing congressman that has sort of struck me as an undercovered aspect of this midterm season is the fact that many of the Republicans who are willing to criticize the president or who consider themselves to be more moderate or opponents of the president aren’t going to be in Washington come January, either because they’re swept out of office, potentially in this wave, or because they, like you, like Charlie Dent, your colleague, choose not to stick around, either because you thought you couldn’t win or because the environment is so toxic. What is the Republican Party going to look like come January? I mean, regardless of whether the majority is there, it seems as though it’s going to hand more power no matter what to the right wing in the House conference."
COSTELLO: "Well, my feeling Kasie is that as a party, we are going to have to be much more forceful in what our policy prerogatives are, because as the party continues to be more and more defined by Trump -- especially when he wades into primaries and the Trump-backed candidate wins, that is not a recipe for long-term success as a political party. It’s just simply not. And in the suburbs you are seeing the real acceleration of independents move to Democrats, either voting or in party registration. That’s happened in southeastern Pennsylvania, it continues to spread westward. And beyond that, I think that as a party, if we lose our identity, free market, limited government, that is -- that is -- that is not a good — that is -- we’re not going to grow the party. So Governor Kasich’s points yesterday, I fully subscribe to, and I think for a lot of members, after November, if there is — if we are not successful in November, the ways we’ve enjoyed in the past several cycles, if this is anything remotely like 2010, I think you’ll see a lot more members realize that just standing in line behind Trump, or not speaking out is probably the better way to put it, is not going to be sustainable for our party."