Peter Baker on Whether Trump Is an Asset to His Party Amid Midterms: It Doesn’t Help When a President’s Approval Ratings Are So Low

RUSH EXCERPT:
BAKER: "Well, that may be one reason why you hear him say, I don’t need to get out there because it’s up to them, because maybe he’s not getting a lot of invitations. It’s a good question. I mean, I think that, you know, let’s let’s start for from scratch on the polls here. Obviously, the polls do show voters are mad at Republicans. And yes, also mad at President Trump. He’s down close toward or at the lowest level he’s been in his presidency in various recent polls, 31, 32, 33%. now, there are a couple polls that show him a little above that, but that’s really very low for an incumbent president this close to a midterm election. History does not favor a president’s party in midterm elections to begin with. And it certainly doesn’t help when a president’s approval ratings are so low that they drag on the ticket. Now, having said that, there are fewer seats today in today’s politics because of gerrymandered districts in both sides, there are fewer seats that are up for grabs. There are fewer truly competitive seats. And so even if the Democrats win, it may not be by the big wave that they would like to see. They’ll probably win the house because they only need to win, I think, 3 or 4 seats in order to take it. It’s a very narrow majority right now, but they may not get like, say, the 60 votes increase that Republicans got during Obama’s midterm election, for instance, or even as much as, you know, during Clinton’s, it’s a much tougher time right now to switch seats. So that’s the advantage Republicans have. They’re also going to try to take this D. s a progressive left victories in some of these races and try to use that against Democrats elsewhere. But it’s not looking good right now for Republicans unless the president can find a way to end the Iran war. That’s what they’re banking on."