Is Trump sabotaging his own party's hopes of maintaining a senate majority?

[ThatRobGuy]

Lately, Trump seems to pretty intent on bashing Jeff Sessions...tweeting about him, bashing him in televised interviews, etc...

Trying to say that Jeff Sessions should drop out of the Senate race on a few occasions...

I think there's pretty strong evidence that, left to their own decision making, many Alabama residents would re-elect Sessions in a landslide and get another Senate seat back (the only reason Doug Jones is in there is because Sessions vacated in order to take a chance on being an AG and they decided to go all in on a guy who liked to troll for 15 year old girls when he was 30). However, given their loyalty to Trump and their willingness to do whatever he says, there's a good chance Trump could encourage to people to remove their support from Sessions...and instead back Trump's preference....a political unknown, "Coach Tuberville", who hasn't been vetted by the media (so we don't know what skeletons he may have) and could very well lose to Doug Jones.

To give a little background, Sessions was so popular in that state that after a few dominant victories winning with over 2/3 of the votes, Democrats didn't even bother trying to run someone to oppose him in 2014.


In a time when the GOP could very well be at risk to lose a Senate majority, I think it's a major strategy flaw for Trump to back (and encourage his devout followers) to back an unknown, simply because that unknown is willing to stroke his ego more than a guy who was "a lock" in that state for decades.

Even some far-right conservative pundits aren't happy with the decision either.

Ann Coulter (the same far right wing person who wrote a book called "In Trump We Trust") had this to say...

(used a little blue to to blot out a restricted word to stay within the rules)

...and even Ben Shapiro went on a tirade against Trump, for attacking Sessions, on his most recent podcast (the video of it was on YouTube earlier, but I'm unable to locate it again at the moment) claiming that he was throwing away a "sure thing" (Sessions being able to beat Doug Jones and bring a red seat back to the Senate) in favor of pursuing some petty agenda to bash someone on Twitter who he had a falling out with.


Whether or not Trump can win against Biden (I still think Biden was a bad choice for the DNC, they should've gone with Mayor Pete) means very little if both houses of the legislative branch have a Democratic majority.

While I've been harping on the democrats recently for their poor candidate selection for the past month, I feel that Trump intentionally trying to sabotage a sure-fire winner for a Senate seat highlights some of my past reasoning for why I thought the GOP was short-sighted in going with Trump...and they may end up realizing that just because he can "beat Hillary and agitate leftists", that doesn't necessarily mean he can't damage the GOP and their political agenda.


Maybe one day (2024) I'll get my wish and get to see a Charlie Baker vs. Mayor Pete election so I actually have a reason to watch the debates, and actually have a decent choice on either side of the political fence to choose from...but I won't hold my breath. It'll probably end up being Roseanne vs. Michael Moore or something stupid like that lol.

 

[Basil the Great]

Well, the short answer to the question is "yes".

 

[Kentonio]

The really pitiful thing is that Sessions is continuing to run as a Trump supporter despite the endless attacks on him by Trump.

 

[variant]

I wouldn't say Sessions is the key to republican hopes of the senate, I would say he should stop (rather tyrannically) threatening aid to states over mail in balloting and making his proliferation of conspiracy theories on twitter a hill to die on.

 

[KCfromNC]

Well, the short answer to the question is "yes".

No, I think he's doing a great job. He does need to get some more visibility for his plans to gut Medicare and Social Security, but overall his message is getting out.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I wouldn't say Sessions is the key to republican hopes of the senate, I would say he should stop (rather tyrannically) threatening aid to states over mail in balloting and making his proliferation of conspiracy theories on twitter a hill to die on.

Obviously it's just one seat, but I don't think they can afford to lose any seats at the moment (but they likely will), you think they'd have at least some vested interest in taking every opportunity to flip a blue one back to red.


It'd be like putting together a track team, and wanting to kick a guy off the team who's had several wins, in favor of bringing a completely novice runner onto the team (who they've never seen run before), just because the new guy is more willing to suck up to the track coach than the other guy.

 

[variant]

Obviously it's just one seat, but I don't think they can afford to lose any seats at the moment (but they likely will), you think they'd have at least some vested interest in taking every opportunity to flip a blue one back to red.

It'd be like putting together a track team, and wanting to kick a guy off the team who's had several wins, in favor of bringing a completely novice runner onto the team (who they've never seen run before), just because the new guy is more willing to suck up to the track coach than the other guy.

Yeah, it's pretty dumb, sure. But we have many examples of just how petty and dumb the president is.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

The really pitiful thing is that Sessions is continuing to run as a Trump supporter despite the endless attacks on him by Trump.

If he wants to have any hope of winning as a republican in Alabama, he pretty much has to (even if he resents Trump deep down).

With Trump pushing this other guy (which is already causing Sessions to lose support from the people "following the leader"), the last thing he can afford to do is even make the slightest suggestion that he'd support Biden from a strategic standpoint for the position he projects to voters. What Sessions actually would do in the privacy of a voting booth come November could be a different story.

 

[Kentonio]

If he wants to have any hope of winning as a republican in Alabama, he pretty much has to (even if he resents Trump deep down).

With Trump pushing this other guy (which is already causing Sessions to lose support from the people "following the leader"), the last thing he can afford to do is even make the slightest suggestion that he'd support Biden from a strategic standpoint for the position he projects to voters. What Sessions actually would do in the privacy of a voting booth come November could be a different story.

Or you know, he could just run as a conservative without bowing down to Trump. Still not sure when blind sycophancy became a condition of being a Republican Senator.

 

[variant]

Or you know, he could just run as a conservative without bowing down to Trump. Still not sure when blind sycophancy became a condition of being a Republican Senator.

Most of them are more scared of Trump than anything else.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Or you know, he could just run as a conservative without bowing down to Trump. Still not sure when blind sycophancy became a condition of being a Republican Senator.

If he wants to lose...

I don't like this "undying allegiance" sentiment either...but look how quickly GOP voters turned on guys like Romney and McCain (who they'd voted for not long before that)