Picking 'loser' Trump as nominee could 'come back to haunt the Republican party': Fox News analyst

06 July 2023

The day after 2022 midterm elections, the Wall Street Journal's editorial board published an op-ed blasting former President Donald Trump, titled, 'Trump is the Republican Party's Biggest Loser.'

The WSJ board noted "Trumpy Republican candidates failed at the ballot box in states that were clearly winnable," emphasizing the 2024 MAGA hopeful "has led Republicans into one political fiasco after another."

In January, Republican presidential candidate, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said, "I've said over and over again that" Trump "can't win a general election," adding, "And that's not speculation. That's based upon the polling that I was privy to pre-the 2020 election. And what we saw actually happen in the 2020 election. And it's only gotten worse since then."

Months later, during a segment of Fox News' Special Report Wednesday, senior political analyst Brit Hume, echoed the WSJ's and Christie's sentiment.

Special Report guest host Rich Edson asked Hume his thoughts regarding the fact Trump's staunch supporters still believe he can win, saying, "Part of his challengers' argument is that if you go back to the 2018 election, every two years with Trump as either the titular head or actual head of the Republican Party, Republicans have underperformed in those national elections. And yet, when you look at the polling, it shows that Republican voters believe that he's gonna win and part of the appeal of Donald Trump is that he is a winner. Where does that disconnect go and how can Trump's opponents make that case that perhaps on winnability that that's an issue?"

Hume replied, "Well, those losses in the midterms and eventually the presidency are not...disappointing performances and losses. They're real. They happened. There's no doubt about it. There’' no way around it. And the case can be made that he's a loser because since he got elected in 2016, he's compiled a string of them – either he or his supported candidate have lost too many races."

The analyst continued, "But the history of primary suggests that people don't cast strategic votes in favor of the candidate they think mostly likely will win — by in large they don't. And right now, people are voting their hearts and they tend to vote in primaries where the candidates that they feel closest to. They're not voting about who they think could get elected. That may come back to haunt the Republican party in 2024 because you look at the Democrats and what they think of the race. They think that Trump is gonna win the nomination. And they think Biden will beat him because he did beat him."

Watch Mediaite's video below or at this link.

The Wall Street Journal's full op-ed is available at this link.

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