Rep. Don Bacon had no easy answers for CNN anchor Jake Tapper after Tapper asked why Republicans appear willing to walk into a midterm buzzsaw with President Donald Trump.
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“In 2024. Republicans hammered democrats for being out of touch over the cost of living and affordability issues. And it worked. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. So now that Trump is getting hammered over the affordability issue, why are so many Republicans still willing to stay loyal to Trump at the risk of meeting the same fate as 2024, Democrats who were defeated?” Tapper demanded.
“Well, it’s a very good question, Jake,” said Bacon, who had dedicated a monologue to the economic swamp Trump plunked not only Republicans but also American voters.
Tapper cited Arizona Republican strategist Barrett Marson, who earlier told CNN that: “there is one person in this country who doesn’t care about gas prices, just one. And unfortunately, that one person controls our fate.” Tapper then asked if Republicans are going to be forced to “distance themselves from Trump, given how unpopular both he and the war and the ensuing high gas prices are.”
But Bacon appeared beaten when pointing out that Trump and Republicans “cannot fight a war in a partisan manner.”
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“The case was there, but the president tried to go it alone, and that it was going to be a quick fight. ‘We’re gonna make a deal tomorrow. We’re going to make a deal next week. A deal is imminent,’ [Trump said]. I think these things have undermined this effort,” said Bacon.
“But if we stop this now, Iran wins and Iran could still produce a nuclear weapon,” Bacon added, looking sheepish. “Maybe not as soon as it could have, but with China’s or Russia’s help or north Korea’s help, they can rebuild this capability and they will still be the leading exporter of terrorists. I think the president has to keep this blockade on. He’s got to prevail in this fight. Because if he doesn’t, we’re going to have a worse threat on our hands down the road. But he’s sort of put us in a spot where he’s backed into a corner with this being an unpopular war. And I just – it goes back from the beginning: He had to this had to be a bipartisan effort, not a one man band. But that’s what it became.”
Tapper then referenced Trump’s recent gaffe involving family of crew members aboard the USS Lincoln, claiming terrible conditions on board and horrible morale amid a grueling, abnormally long deployment. Trump’s response was a denial of family members’ claims and that the deployment is “not nearly long enough”
“I wish you wouldn’t have said that the deployment wasn’t long enough,” lamented Bacon, a veteran. “Uh, there should be some empathy here.”
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