GOP Senators panic as Donald Trump threatens to take them down with him
It’s a dark time for our nation, as we descend further into uncharted territory in the next several weeks amidst rioting and a pandemic that the Oval Office’s current occupant is largely ignoring both crises while actively working to promote his own imaginary one, at the expense of alienating voters that he desperately needs. If you’re currently anxious about Donald Trump’s demented tweets and interviews as things get worse, you’re hardly alone. Republican candidates facing re-election this year aren’t exactly thrilled about it either.
Joni Ernst, who won her Senate seat in a midterm that saw Republicans sweep both Houses of Congress, is now facing a strong challenger in Theresa Greenfield, with her advantage just within the margin of error. This is usually the point at which a Republican candidate would be begging Donald Trump to come out and rally for them – the only problem is that holding rallies is largely out of the question in the middle of a pandemic and Trump is more unpopular than ever.
So when Ernst was asked on an ABC News podcast about her thoughts towards Trump’s latest idiotic conspiracy theory involving Joe Scarborough, Ernst made it clear she wasn’t willing to go there. “I’d love to rub a little Iowa nice off, but certainly it gets media attention, and negative or positive, it’s obviously getting media attention.” Basically, it was her best folksy way to say she’s not willing to go there and really wishes he’d stop, since it’s only something else that will rub off on all the Republican candidates running. Some time ago, a memo circulated among the GOP encouraging them to distance themselves from Donald Trump in upcoming races – and right now we’re seeing it start to play out.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making