This Tuesday, incumbent Republican candidate for the Kentucky governorship Matt Bevin lost to Democratic candidate Andy Beshear, literally the day after President Donald Trump proclaimed at a rally in Kentucky that a Bevin loss would be devastating for him personally. On Wednesday, CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta shared some behind-the-scenes perspective on just how bad the post-Kentucky loss situation really is for the president and his allies. He posted a quote from a source close to Trump who described the outcome as “totally bad” and “terrible.” Apparently, the GOP can’t expect to win solely on the basis of anti-impeachment theatrics after all.
Acosta posted:
‘On last night’s results, source who regularly talks to Trump: “Totally bad. Kentucky and Virginia signal to GOP they are underestimating voter intensity against Trump, and it could be terrible for them next year,” the source said. “Bad omen for impeachment,” the source added.’
As many have pointed out, Matt Bevin is not the only demonstrably unpopular Republican soon running for re-election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also represents the state, and recently, a poll measured a just 18 percent approval rating for him. While barely one in five voters said they approved of the job he was doing in office, only about 37 percent said they were planning to vote for him in 2020 — although there’s still of course a significant way to go before ensuring that he’s on a path to lose.
There’s also the matter of Donald Trump himself. Trump won the state of Kentucky in 2016 by a margin of some 30 percent — but that’s obviously not holding, because Kentucky voters flatly rejected his candidate. His national approval rating is at just about 41 percent.
Check out Twitter’s response to Acosta…
