The White House is blaming the Republican candidates Donald Trump endorsed rather than the president himself for Tuesday’s election losses.
As Democrats are poised for a strong midterm showing, a White House official is looking to absolve the 80-year-old president of any blame, arguing that he was an asset rather than a liability.
“President Trump was not on the ballot, and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot,” a White House official told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer. “Also, candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves.”
“President Trump’s resolve to stop the Radical Left is only going to become stronger,” they added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Among the brutal results for the GOP were Senate losses in North Carolina and South Carolina, with Democrats flipping both seats. Democratic Senate candidates also won by substantial margins in Georgia and New Hampshire.
Democrats were also projected to take back the House.
While discussing the South Carolina race, a Fox News panel discussed Trump-endorsed Sen. Darline Graham being a “weak candidate.”
“There is public frustration with the Iran conflict,” Laura Ingraham said. “Lindsey Graham was obviously a big foreign policy hawk… I think the voters probably just believe she was a blueprint of Lindsey Graham on the issue that is the toughest for Republicans right now, and she struggled in the beginning on some of these fundamental questions.”
“It’s always risky when, for nostalgic reasons, you pick someone who was the relative of someone who had a big personality and a big presence,” Ingraham continued. “It was a risk. I thought it was not the right call, but the president’s political judgment has been, almost always right.”
Fox News Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume added: “This woman, for all of her character, which may be sterling, she’s a weak candidate. When she was asked a foreign policy question, she said ‘I don’t really know anything about foreign policy.’ Oh, great.”
In August, Graham’s response to a question about China, Taiwan and national security drew criticism.
“I’m just going to be honest here: I’m not that informed on national security, so—but I do support the military,” Graham responded. “National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.”
