'Run for the hills': Republican insiders increasingly feel 'doomed'

"Something is happening" within the Republican Party as they feel increasingly "doomed" in the midterms, with conservative commentator Rick Wilson exposing GOP insiders' panic for more money to stem the bleeding.

Wilson, an outspoken critic of Trump and co-founder of The Lincoln Project, was a guest on the latest edition of the "Fast Politics" podcast, where he and host Molly Jong-Fast discussed the emerging new signs of midterm panic among Republicans as Trump becomes as unpopular as he has ever been. This included various candidates in deep-red Florida taking steps to distance themselves from the president, including gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, a figure whom Wilson said "really only exists because of his support for Trump."

"It is part of the constellation of signs in the heavens that these guys are in a panic," Wilson said. "And now they're even to the point where, for a few weeks now, there've been like mutterings of like, 'Sources allowed to speak off the record.' So they're concerned that the president's numbers are hurting, now it's like people by name are out there saying, 'We're doomed, it's bad, run for the hills."

Speaking further about GOP candidates and operatives "sensing panic," Wilson also relayed a piece about information he heard about the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a group focused on promoting and helping elect GOP Senate candidates, and its panicked plea for immediate cash.

"I heard from a former Republican fundraiser this weekend who told me NRSC is like running around now saying, 'We need another $50 million ASAP."

Jong-Fast further pressed Wilson about how likely it is that these pleas for more money will be answered, given "the scent of loserness" that has begun to haunt Republican candidates.

"I wrote about this earlier in the week that political money are like, they're like herd animals, right?" Wilson said. "And the minute they sniff danger, they're out.

He added: "Psychologists call it a preference cascade, where suddenly people are like, well, that guy's in trouble, I'm not gonna give to him. And then their friends are like, oh, well, so-and-so's not gonna give, so I'm not gonna give. That, and it runs both directions, right? The classic one was Obama, who nobody thought was gonna go anywhere, and the minute he started to excel, you know, God helps those who help themselves in politics. And so, you know, these guys are right now, over and over again, sending this message like, we're desperate, we're in trouble, help, help, help."