John Heilemann: Trump Makes the Situation So Daunting for So Many Republicans in Battleground States

EXCERPT:

HEILEMANN: “Democrats rate the president worse on most of these issues, and independents are not that much far behind partisan Democrats in terms of how they view President Trump's handling. And Republicans are now so firmly tied to the hip to Donald Trump, that there's really -- the thing that makes the situation so daunting for so many of these Republicans in battleground states, whether it's the Senate or battleground districts, the House, is that they have given up so much of their authority to Trump and bound themselves to him, they are his instrument. And so it's very hard now to do what a lot of candidates who are in vulnerable positions would normally do in a time like this, which is to put some distance between themselves and the White House, these Republicans not only don't want to do that because they're afraid of Trump, but they can't do that because they are just inextricably bound up with what he's done.”