As Republicans begin to blame, Trump is the obvious target

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Dozens of races across the country remained unresolved as of midday Wednesday, but Republicans were already playing that age-old post-election game among members of the side who underperformed: Who’s to blame?

And in many player conversations Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, one clear target was emerging: Donald Trump, who slotted into dozens of races and even said on the eve of the election that he deserved the credit if his party was doing well, but not blame them if they didn’t.

“The election was much closer than it should have been because Trump endorsed some Republican primary candidates who were inexperienced, early candidates not ready for a very intense, high-profile Senate race,” he said. said Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist and pollster.

Trump spent Wednesday morning at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., calling angry friends and advisers to explain why the decisive wave of GOP victories that he and so many others predicted won’t happen. failed to materialize, with the former president blaming others for endorsement decisions he had made, according to a former Trump White House official still in touch with Trump’s inner circle. Trump said in those conversations that the candidates who lost should have more fully embraced his lie about winning the 2020 election, pointing to TV doctor Mehmet Oz’s loss to John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate race as a result. particularly frustrating, said the former official, who noted that Trump was also furious that the New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, printed the headline “DeFuture” to describe Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whose landslide victory in re-election Tuesday topped Trump’s 2020 margins in the state.

Read more: How John Fetterman beat Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania

By afternoon, Trump had calmed down a bit, writing on his Truth Social social media platform that the election results were “somewhat disappointing” but saying that from “my personal perspective, it was a very big victory” counting its own number of victories. and losses for candidates he endorsed – “219 wins and 16 losses overall”.

Those losses, however, included some of the most expensive and hard-fought races in midterms, those in which Trump virtually determined the Republican nominee with his endorsement. Many Trump supporters have criticized his involvement in the midterm races.

A Trump supporter at a rally in Miami

Andres Kudacki for TIME

As the former president sulked, Republicans gave an update on the impact of his nominee picks and election rejections on the outcome, which wasn’t the clear rebuke to Joe Biden’s presidency they swore. were waiting. Instead, Republicans are eyeing the prospect of controlling the House by a very slim margin, if they flip it at all, which would make future speaker Kevin McCarthy beholden to fringe Republican caucus members. Senate control remains too close to call.

Matt Langston, general consultant in Austin, Texas, at Engage Right, a conservative strategy firm, pushed back against the idea that Trump’s midterm involvement was a mistake, saying such an assessment could not be determined until the final partisan decision. of the next Congress was known.

“The conclusion last night was either a referendum on Trump or a referendum on Biden – that answer is not yet clear,” Langston told TIME.

Biden, for his part, thinks the answer is beyond doubt.

“The Democrats had a great night,” he said Wednesday afternoon, speaking to reporters in the White House State Dining Room. Biden said that “while the press and pundits were predicting a red wave. It didn’t happen.

The results, while incomplete, were seen inside the White House as vindication of Biden’s measured approach to leadership and his warnings about the dangers election deniers pose to American democracy. . “With their votes, the American people have spoken once again and proven that democracy is what we are,” Biden said.

Ayres agrees that Trump’s denial of the 2020 results and his efforts to rescind Jan. 6 election certification have been a major drag on Republican candidates. “It turns out that trying to overturn an election isn’t very popular with American voters,” he says. . Ayres pointed to election denier and former TV news anchor Kari Lake’s campaign for governor of Arizona against Democrat Katie Hobbs, who as of Wednesday night remained neck and neck as ballots were still counted. “Kari Lake is a very polite and efficient candidate,” Ayres said. “Katie Hobbs is a very crude and ineffectual candidate. And yet it seems to be something close to a tie, because of Kari Lake’s election denialism.

Read more: How Kari Lake went from a local anchor to a new face on the MAGA right

Supporters cheer as it rains at a Trump rally in Miami

Andres Kudacki for TIME

What Trump does in the coming weeks could again impact which party controls the Senate, or at least by what margin. In the Georgia game between Trump-backed candidate Hershel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, neither candidate beat 50% of the vote, sending the race to a runoff Dec. 6. Trump is expected to declare his candidacy for president on Tuesday, November 15 at his club in Florida. On the eve of the midterm, Trump told a rally in Dayton, Ohio, that he would make a “very big announcement” that day.

But having a headline blitz on Trump’s presidential campaign may not be what Republicans need in their bid to control the Senate. Some Trump allies, such as former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEneny and former senior Trump adviser Jason Miller, said they advised the former president to delay major announcements until Georgia’s runoff has been decided.

Langston suggested that the outcome of the midterm reviews may actually make Trump more likely to pull the trigger and announce. “History has taught us that you’re dealing with a candidate and a team of advisers who the harder the climb seems, the harder they fight,” he says.

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Write to Jasmine Aguilera at [email protected].

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