Trump blames GOP’s handling of ‘abortion’ for midterm losses – says issue was ‘poorly handled’

Former President Donald Trump Sunday declared ‘it wasn’t my fault’ that the Republicans underperformed expectations in the midterms and blamed both the Supreme Court ruling and the party’s position on abortion.

Trump, writing on his Truth Social platform, he also threw in some of his regular criticism of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s spending on candidates. 

‘It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms. I was 233-20!’ he said, referencing his record with endorsements.

He then honed in on the party’s pro-life faction, saying ‘It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.’

Former President Donald Trump Sunday declared ‘it wasn’t my fault’ that the Republicans underperformed expectations in the midterms and blamed both the Supreme Court ruling and the party’s position on abortion

Not only does former President Trump believe that going all-in on abortion lost them voters, but that those who’d seen Roe vs. Wade overturned basically disappeared from the political process altogether.

‘Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again,’ he added.

Trump tossed in one more shot at McConnell’s spending on candidates, saying ‘Plus, Mitch stupid $’s!’ 

The 45th president appointed three pro-life justices to the court during his term, with Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch all voting to overturn Roe vs. Wade. 

The Hill reported that exit polls showed abortion was the second most important issue for voters. 

While many were suggesting a ‘red wave’ would come in the midterms, Democrats actually picked up a seat in the Senate, with John Fetterman – who had a stroke the day before the Democratic primary – defeating the Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz.

While Kyrsten Sinema is now an independent, she like Bernie Sanders and Maine Senator Angus King caucuses with the Democrats, giving them 51 votes in the Senate. 

Not only does former President Trump believe that going all-in on abortion lost them voters, but that those who’d seen Roe vs. Wade overturned basically disappeared from the political process altogether

The 45th president appointed three pro-life justices to the court during his term, with Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch all voting to overturn Roe vs. Wade

Republicans did win the House, but only by a slim margin, with the GOP only gaining nine seats. 

Trump has taken the stance of endorsing candidates that push his claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. This has led the former president to put his backing behind some radical candidates that beat out more mainstream Republicans in the primary elections but had little to no chance of winning against the Democratic challenger.

One of the most notable losses was the Senate race in Pennsylvania, where Oz, who was endorsed by Trump, lost to Fetterman. Many experts believe that if former hedge fund CEO David McCormick was the Republican nominee, he could have easily fended off Fetterman.

The Pennsylvania loss was one of the races that led to Democrats increasing their razor-thin majority in the Senate from 50-50 to 51-50. 

Trump announced in November that he was making a third run for the White House after losing his reelection bid to President Joe Biden in 2020.

While Kyrsten Sinema is now an independent, she like Bernie Sanders and Maine Senator Angus King caucuses with the Democrats, giving them 51 votes in the Senate

Trump tossed in one more shot at McConnell’s spending on candidates, saying ‘Plus, Mitch stupid $’s!’

Since then, many rank-and-file Republicans have been coming out against Trump’s third bid, claiming they want different blood to take on Biden in 2024.

Polling has shown Florida Governor Ron DeSantis emerging as the most popular Republican to be the nominee in 2024 – even beating out Trump.

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also told Cats Roundtable host John Catsimatidis this weekend that ‘ticket-splitting’ was a major factor in the GOP’s lack of a ‘red wave’.

She also deflected blame from the RNC for more radical far-right candidates winning the 2022 midterm primaries.

‘We didn’t win as much as we wanted to win,’ she said when assessing the midterm elections.

Many rank-and-file Republicans have been coming out against Trump’s third bid, claiming they want different blood to take on Biden in 2024

‘We’ve got to look at what happened in every state, what happened in every race,’ she added. ‘We saw very high Republican turnout. But we saw a massive amount of ticket splitting, where a Republican would win statewide…but the other Republican running statewide… the Republicans actually voted for the Democrat. We’ve got to figure out what that is.’

‘The RNC, we don’t pick the candidates. The voters do,’ McDaniel went on. ‘We don’t do the messaging. That’s up to the campaigns.’

‘But we do do turnout. The one thing we’re seeing right now is that turnout was sky high, but Republicans didn’t vote for every Republican candidate.’