'Politically moronic': GOP veteran says Trump is sabotaging his own party

Republican strategists think that President Donald Trump made a major misstep in his latest lawsuit.

Late Thursday evening, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward filed a suit in Alaska that, if approved, would stop the certification of the election if anyone other than the incumbent Republican wins.

According to the suit, candidate Daniel J. Sullivan entered the race as a spoiler candidate and in a clear effort to cause confusion. If the election is close and it's clear that Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-Alaska) didn't win because people voted for Daniel J. Sullivan, the White House wants certification paused until it can determine whether voters were confused.

Legal analysts have mocked it as an unlikely "Hail Mary" by the administration, reminiscent of the fight over "hanging chads," butterfly ballots and accidental votes for a Libertarian in the 2000 Florida presidential race.

Trump told the press on the tarmac in Florida, "I’m the one that said do it."

Now Republicans are coming forward to note just what a horrible idea it is.

Politico reported Saturday that some republicans think it's desperate while others called it downright "moronic."

Ben Ginsberg, Republican election lawyer and former counsel to George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns, commented, “Boy, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. It feels like a real desperation play to me, because it has got zero basis in the law.”

“By talking about stolen elections, by talking about cheating, they’re suppressing their own vote and they’re encouraging the votes of their opponents. So tactically, I think it’s politically moronic," agreed former REpublican senior Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling.

What he means is that if Trump is already teasing that the election is rigged, it gives little incentive for Republicans to come out to the polls because the president said it was already rigged against them. Meanwhile, it could backfire, motivating voters to cast ballots against Republicans this cycle.

“I think there is an attempt to lay a foundation to say, ‘If we had won these lawsuits, we would have won the election,'" said Sterling.

While more republicans may share his sentiment, there's also a possibility that Republicans want nothing to do with some of his new election lawsuits.

One Georgia Republican official who asked not to be named commented, “Bring it on. I think there’s zero credible way for any entity, much less the DOJ, to say that the election results in Georgia are suspect.”

Republican officials, though, have not responded uniformly. Politico contacted every Republican statewide election official; four declined comment, while the remainder did not respond.

Former Arizona election official Stephen Richer, a Republican, thinks the reluctance stems from the political risks of challenging Trump.

“The survival rate politically of people who oppose Donald Trump on this issue is not great if you’re Republican," he said.