Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Some GOP candidates pull away from Trump as voting begins

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Some GOP candidates pull away from Trump as voting begins · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A CNN analysis shows Republicans aired more than 500 TV
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  Speaker 1: ads between September 1st and the 15th. Just 12 mentioned
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  Speaker 1: the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: President.
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  Speaker 1: I spoke to CNN's Jeff Zeleny about why last hour.
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  Speaker 2: His name is not on the ballot, but Democrats are
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  Speaker 2: sure trying to put his policies agenda. and overall job
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  Speaker 2: approval rating on the ballot. But this analysis is quite
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  Speaker 2: interesting because it really shows what is really happening underneath
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  Speaker 2: the surface here with about six weeks to go before
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  Speaker 2: the U.S. midterm elections. Republicans have some strategic choices here
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  Speaker 2: about where they spending their money here. And as you said,
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  Speaker 2: just 12 of 500 ads in some of the top
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  Speaker 2: races are mentioning the president at all by Republicans. But
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  Speaker 2: Democrats on the other side are mentioning him constantly in
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  Speaker 2: many of these top Senate races. They're trying to tie
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  Speaker 2: him to these Republican candidates, tie them to the unpopular
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  Speaker 2: Republican Iran war, tie them to the economy, other things.
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  Speaker 2: So what is also interesting, it's not just Republican candidates
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  Speaker 2: distancing themselves from the president, which we see in election
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  Speaker 2: after election with an unpopular president. It's Trump's own political network,
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  Speaker 2: his own top advisors, his own brain trust, if you will,
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  Speaker 2: deciding that he's not the best messenger. And talking to
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  Speaker 2: those Republican strategists, one said, look, the president is not
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  Speaker 2: the right message or the right messenger at this time.
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  Speaker 2: So it really underscores how much of a liability he is. However,
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  Speaker 2: the Republican strategy is also to overwhelm Democrats with money.
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  Speaker 2: And that is happening in every Senate race in America,
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  Speaker 2: with the exception of Georgia. Republicans have a spending advantage.
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  Speaker 2: They are using their money to try and knock down, attack,
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  Speaker 2: disqualify these Democratic candidates. Senate contenders.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the former Republican governor of Kansas is speaking out
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  Speaker 1: about the direction of today's Republican Party. And he tells
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  Speaker 1: CNN why he's crossing party lines and endorsing a Democratic
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  Speaker 1: candidate over the Republican incumbent in the high stakes Kansas
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  Speaker 1: Senate race.
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  Speaker 3: The Republican Party to me today feels like sort of
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  Speaker 3: a bad frat party. Everybody's sort of just full of
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  Speaker 3: this joy and enthusiasm about how great things are going.
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  Speaker 3: And they're not really grasping the struggles that are going
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  Speaker 3: on every day for everyday Americans. I mean, we have
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  Speaker 3: lots of problems in this country, and the Republicans are
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  Speaker 3: not manning up in dealing with them. And right now,
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  Speaker 3: the Republicans in Congress have simply given away, have walked
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  Speaker 3: away from their responsibility to be the check and balance
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  Speaker 3: of against this executive branch.
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  Speaker 4: And that is wrong.
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  Speaker 3: And it needs to be rectified.
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  Speaker 1: I want to start off with your thoughts on how
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  Speaker 1: Republicans are approaching the midterms so far. And they're taking
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  Speaker 1: their distance from Trump. But also, if you buy Bill
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Graves's point in that soundbite we just heard, not doing
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  Speaker 1: much to stand up to him. How do they walk
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  Speaker 1: that line?
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  Speaker 4: It's a very difficult line to walk. And some of
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  Speaker 4: this is very normal. I've experienced this in elections I've
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  Speaker 4: worked in where the incumbent president wasn't popular. The 2006
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  Speaker 4: midterms in George W. Bush's presidency was tough for Republicans
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  Speaker 4: because Bush was so unpopular. But here's the difference. In 2006,
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  Speaker 4: the Senate campaign I was working on, we could be
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  Speaker 4: critical of President Bush and of his policies. We'd have
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  Speaker 4: conversations with the RNC and the senatorial committee, and they
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  Speaker 4: would always say, we don't love this, but you got
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  Speaker 4: to do what you got to do. The difference is
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  Speaker 4: Donald Trump. He doesn't take that attitude with anybody. And
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  Speaker 4: it's going to be very interesting to see. for those
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  Speaker 4: Republicans who have spoken out, whether or not Donald Trump
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  Speaker 4: goes after them. Obviously, you know, there's a new ad
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  Speaker 4: from a Florida Republican congresswoman. Does Donald Trump go after
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  Speaker 4: her or not? And it's the fear that Republicans have
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  Speaker 4: of what Donald Trump can do to undercut them with
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  Speaker 4: the Republican base.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I just also want to step back on what
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  Speaker 1: we've been covering these past few minutes. I mean, President
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  Speaker 1: Trump is dealing with an intractable war in Iran. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's causing serious global economic pain, and even in the
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  Speaker 1: United States with gas and diesel prices. There's panic about AI.
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  Speaker 1: There's historic low approval ratings. I mean, the numbers are
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  Speaker 1: really interesting, 36 percent, according to CNN's poll of polls.
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  Speaker 1: But do you get the sense that any of that
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  Speaker 1: is sinking in?
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  Speaker 4: Oh, I think it's all sunk in for voters. Clearly,
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  Speaker 4: what we've seen with Trump's approval ratings is that they've
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  Speaker 4: fallen time after time. They just get a little bit
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  Speaker 4: lower each time. And the reason for that are two
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  Speaker 4: main issues, the economy and immigration. Both of those issues
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  Speaker 4: were really Donald Trump's bread and butter. He was the
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  Speaker 4: businessman who was going to fix the border. And the
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  Speaker 4: reality is his numbers are below on both. And obviously,
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  Speaker 4: if you look at AI, it's a real driving concern.
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  Speaker 4: And data centers, real driving concerns. It speaks to the
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  Speaker 4: nervousness that voters have.
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  Speaker 5: Elena, it takes a lot as a Republican to break
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  Speaker 5: with Trump, especially if you're somebody that has a good
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  Speaker 5: relationship with him generally and you're somebody that he has
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  Speaker 5: actually supported in the past. Trump spoke about her in
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  Speaker 5: the past saying, you know, she's great, she'll never let
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  Speaker 5: you down. For her to do this in this way, A,
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  Speaker 5: what does it risk? B, what message does it send
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  Speaker 5: to the White House? And C, I can't believe I'm
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  Speaker 5: asking you three questions, but how do Democrats take advantage
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  Speaker 5: of this, do you think?
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, I'll start. I'll try to start in the ABC order.
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  Speaker 6: For her to do that, I totally agree with you.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, particularly when we look at the president in
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  Speaker 6: his second term, he has had an iron grip on
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  Speaker 6: the Republican Party to see not just a Republican, but
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  Speaker 6: as you mentioned, a very loyal one, someone who the
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  Speaker 6: president helped get elected. She's from his own backyard. She's
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  Speaker 6: a congresswoman from Florida. And I think one of the
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  Speaker 6: most pointed things about that ad that you showed from
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  Speaker 6: Salazar is she was doing that criticism standing in front
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  Speaker 6: of the White House. It was very clear what her
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  Speaker 6: message was. And so for her to break at this
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  Speaker 6: moment is a big deal. You know, I was talking
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  Speaker 6: to some of the president's political operatives throughout the day yesterday,
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  Speaker 6: talking with some of his allies. They were very frustrated
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  Speaker 6: by this because, again, it was clear as day what
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  Speaker 6: she was trying to get across, which was essentially Many
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  Speaker 6: people in her state, Latinos and Hispanics specifically, she said,
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  Speaker 6: feel betrayed by your policies. And that is a very
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  Speaker 6: rough thing for a Republican to be doing at this
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  Speaker 6: moment in time. A couple of things here, though. One
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  Speaker 6: about I'll go to actually your C question next is,
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  Speaker 6: you know, could we see any backlash?
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  Speaker 5: What could hurt?
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  Speaker 6: Could this hurt Salazar?
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  Speaker 2: Unclear.
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  Speaker 6: I think this is very much her trying to do
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  Speaker 6: what she believes she needs to do in order to
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  Speaker 6: win her race. It's You know, every race across the
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  Speaker 6: country is different. And in many races, the president is
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  Speaker 6: dragging people down. You know, his polling numbers are terrible.
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  Speaker 6: They've faced a lot of headwinds, many of them of
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  Speaker 6: their own making with the Iran war and dragging up
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  Speaker 6: gas prices across the country for many Americans. And so
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  Speaker 6: this is something clearly Salazar and her campaign feel they
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  Speaker 6: needed to do in order to better position her. And
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  Speaker 6: I will say as well, I think many people recognize
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  Speaker 6: the president is soon going to be a lame duck president.
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  Speaker 6: After the midterms, he has two years left in office,
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  Speaker 6: not running again. We're going to start hearing about 2028 chatter.
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  Speaker 6: I do think for some Republicans now is, you know,
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  Speaker 6: it's becoming almost easier to buck him when you recognize
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  Speaker 6: the power dynamics are different than they potentially would be
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  Speaker 6: when he was, you know, back during his first term
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  Speaker 6: or even in his first and second years of his
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  Speaker 6: second term in office. One thing I think I want
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  Speaker 6: to bring up as well is that his team has
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  Speaker 6: really made this about, you know, at least the president's team,
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  Speaker 6: I should say, has really tried to make his time
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  Speaker 6: on the campaign trail about him, about how, you know,
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  Speaker 6: you've heard the president say repeatedly that he wants voters
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  Speaker 6: to pretend that he is on the ballot. That's not
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  Speaker 6: working in a lot of these different districts, particularly when
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  Speaker 6: you look at, you know, perhaps the main Senate race.
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  Speaker 6: You're not really seeing the president go there into other
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  Speaker 6: states where really, you know, they're a little bit more moderate.
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  Speaker 6: It's more of a purple district. And so that's part
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  Speaker 6: of what we're seeing the president and his team try
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  Speaker 6: to formulate as we lead up to the next couple
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  Speaker 6: of weeks before November 3rd of where they need to
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  Speaker 6: deploy him and where it might hurt to deploy him.
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  Speaker 6: So all of those discussions happening. But I think it's
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  Speaker 6: remarkable that we saw Maria Salazar, again, someone who has
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  Speaker 6: always been an ally of the president, close to the president,
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  Speaker 6: come out in such a forceful way with that ad.