Ryan Costello: Trump Shutting Down the Gov’t ‘Would Be a Terrible Mid-Term Strategy’

EXCERPT: 

HILL: "The President even saying earlier, this could be a great midterm strategy. Do you agree?"

COSTELLO: "No. I think it would be a terrible midterm strategy. This election coming up in is November is not about whether or not we hold on to the most conservative districts in the country. It’s going to be whether we win in the competitive districts across the country where you have a lot of independent voters. Independent voters are not leaning in favor of Republicans. You have a lot of centrist Republicans as well that are looking to hear what our economic message is. Doubling down on immigration I don’t think works. I might also add that we have had a bill in the House that failed. I voted for it. It would have solved the DACA issue and would have provided border security. We didn’t get many conservative Republicans to vote for it. The President could have leaned in on that and it could have passed the House. If he cares about border security, we had the bill that would have been able to do that. Taking immigration and using it as a political wedge issue is not a good long-term strategy for the Republican Party. I don’t think it’s a good strategy in November. Hopefully, everyone running for re-election will see to it they are talking about what they have done in their district, where they agree with the President, where they disagree, as well as talking about the fact that we have record low unemployment. More people looking for jobs than jobs are available. That’s the message we want to sell. Not another shutdown over immigration. I think that’s a losing issue."