GOP Strategist Rick Wilson: Trump Is 'Electoral Poison'
*By Jim Roberts*
Associates of President Trump are on trial, others are in deep legal trouble, and the party that rode into power with Trump is likely facing defeat in the November midterm elections.
That is the legacy that Donald Trump has left in his short time as president, says longtime GOP strategist Rick Wilson.
“Donald Trump’s long, long history in business and in politics now is that anyone around him becomes corrupted,” Wilson told Cheddar. “Their reputation becomes shattered. They get fired; they get into legal trouble and their lives turn into hell.
“And unfortunately for the conservative movement and the Republican Party the same thing is in the process of happening right now.”
Wilson, a frequent political commentator on Cheddar, is the author of a new book [“Everything Trump Touches Dies,”](https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Trump-Touches-Dies-Republican/dp/1982103124/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533684141&sr=8-1&keywords=everything+trump+touches+dies) in which he attempts to document the damage Trump has done to the country and to the Republican Party.
“What upsets me is that all these people around me that said we had all these principles, they’re rock-solid; we’re conservatives; were going to stick with them,” Wilson said. “We have abandoned them almost completely.”
As a prime example, Wilson cited trade and tariffs.
“We used to be for free trade,” he said, referring to his fellow Republicans. “And Donald Trump is now, like, ‘I hate free trade.’ And these guys are now like, ‘of course we need to have tariffs.’”
“It’s nuts,” he added. “There’s a lot of disappointment in where the direction people in my party took this impulsiveness when Trump came in.”
Wilson predicted that the upcoming November elections would be a “solid Democratic midterm.” But he said he didn’t foresee a Democratic blowout that would bring a vast 70-seat swing in the U.S. House. He said that 25 Republican House seats were already vulnerable, without factoring in opposition to Trump.
But “now we’re seeing that the Democrats are picking up seats in places that are solidly red, solidly Republican, like Pennsylvania 18,” which Democrat Conor Lamb won in a special election last March.
To take control of the House, the Democrats need to make a net gain of 24 seats in the midterm elections.
For Democrats to succeed in those races, Wilson suggested that candidates avoid talk of impeachment and stick to local issues.
“I think we’ve seen a bunch of races win this year staying away from impeachment and talking about issues that are local and state-based,” he said. “A lot of those were not about impeachment; they were about presenting a viable mature alternative to Republicans who have fallen into the swamp of Trumpism.”
President Biden and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell meet at the White House today for the first time since Powell's renomination to the position. The President and the Fed Chair discussed the economy and historically high inflation, as new data shows inflation may be cooling slightly. Morning Consult economic analyst Jesse Wheeler joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss how the Biden administration at the U.S. central bank can work together to combat soaring prices for American consumers.
In the second part of Cheddar's talk with Governor Asa Hutchinson, the Republican from Arkansas discussed his state's abortion trigger law and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Texas law that would prevent social media platform moderation currently being held up by the U.S. Supreme Court, and rumors of his 2024 presidential run. "I did go to New Hampshire. I am testing the waters out there, so no decision at this point. But we're looking at it," he said, noting that if former President Donald Trump runs, it would not affect his own decision.
Cheddar Politics looks at the ongoing efforts to pass meaningful gun safety laws in both Chambers of Congress following multiple mass shootings. Lisa Hagen, senior political reporter for U.S. News and World Report, helps break down why Senators are hopeful that a modest bipartisan gun safety package might be able to overcome a filibuster.
Join Cheddar News as we break down the top headlines this morning including updates on the Tulsa medical center shooting, Johnny Depp V. Amber Heard verdict, and Democrats push for gun control reform.
After two subway shootings in two months and the more recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, Mayor Eric Adams is calling for gun detection scanners to be installed in New York City subways. The tech would be similar to that used in sporting arenas, however, experts note multiple difficulties with such a setup including the need for nearby human operators.
Catching you up on what you need to know on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, House lawmakers hold an emergency hearing on gun control measures in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, the Supreme Court temporarily blocks Texas' law stopping social media moderation, and the James Webb Space Telescope gets a new mission.
With the baby formula in the United States surging to an out-of-stock rate of 70 percent, the FDA has given Abbott permission to reopen its Michigan plant amid the crisis and authorized foreign imports. Professor Peter Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner and current president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, joined Cheddar News to discuss the ongoing shortage and its wide impact. “As difficult as things is in urban areas, they’re even worse in small communities and tribal areas where parents can't just go to the next store on the corner," he said. Pitts also noted that the Abbott factory was a "disaster" prior to its shutdown and that it would have been "regulatory malpractice" to have left it open.
Cheddar's Megan Pratz reports from the ground in Uvalde, Texas where the community's grief and frustration with lawmakers and police officers grows as more details emerge.
