Kevin McCarthy panics after Donald Trump blows it

| 9:09 am EDT September 7, 2020
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Donald Trump is willing to do anything in the name of trying to rig the 2020 election in his favor. But as Palmer Report is fond of pointing out, trying is not the same thing as succeeding. Trump’s corrupt schemes have become so erratic and ham fisted, there’s little reason to believe that any of his cheating attempts will help him much.

Take, for instance, Donald Trump’s ongoing attacks on the sanctity of mail-in voting. It’s never been clear what Trump’s strategy is, considering plenty of Democrats and Republicans are going to vote by mail, particularly in a pandemic. There’s no reason to believe that Trump can just magically tilt the election in his favor by messing with mail-in voting. In fact, Trump’s ally Kevin McCarthy is now suggesting that Trump’s scheme could backfire and cost him votes.

McCarthy is telling Axios that he thinks Trump’s rants about mail-in voting could prompt some Republican voters to simply not vote at all, after they decide it’s not worth the risk of voting in person. McCarthy is going so far as to say that the entire Republican Party could end up being “screwed” in this election because Trump told his own supporters not to vote by mail. He says he’s already tried to explain the concept to Trump, and that Trump won’t listen.

So why is Kevin McCarthy going public with this? He’s no doubt trying to cover his backside. McCarthy appears to believe Donald Trump will lose, at which point Republican leaders in the House and Senate will be left trying to explain what went wrong. It sounds like McCarthy, who is currently the House Minority Leader, is laying the groundwork for simply blaming Trump’s idiocy for any GOP losses in the House or Senate. It’s a reminder that Trump’s “allies” like McCarthy will abandon him at the drop of a hat if they selfishly conclude it’s what’s personally best for them.