Donald Trump isn’t in what sounds like a great mood following the defeat of Republican candidate Herschel Walker in Georgia’s Senate runoff, in which Election Day was this past Tuesday.
Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock, who was vying for a full term of six years after appearing on the ballot several times in just a few years, led Walker by nearly three percent in results available Thursday. Before the election, Walker faced serious questions about his basic competency, stemming in part from lies in which he was mired that covered his personal, educational, and business backgrounds. “232 out of 252 Midterm Races WON who had my Endorsement, and the Fake News is working overtime to try and create the most negative narrative possible. No, the REAL reasons were other than Trump, and I can name them ALL!” Trump dubiously insisted Wednesday.
Those figures are different from those for the results of Trump’s endorsements in the midterms cited in The New York Times, which reported that some 82 percent of the contenders behind whom Trump threw his weight were successful — many of whom were incumbents who already saw substantial odds in their favor before Election Day. In some of the most high-profile races in which results looked like they’d be the closest, Trump’s slate lost over and over again. His Save America PAC spent on seven races according to the Times, and his chosen candidates lost in six of them. The only race breaking with that trend was the Ohio Senate contest, where Republican J.D. Vance prevailed against Democrat Tim Ryan. In three dozen House races estimated by the Cook Political Report as the most competitive heading into November 8, Trump endorsed five candidates — and all of them lost, despite the overall success for Republicans in the House.
It extends back to the primaries too, when his pick for governor against Georgia Republican Brian Kemp lost in the primary by over 50 percent. Kemp was subsequently re-elected. “Being a RINO in the Republican Party is like living in the past. Nothing good comes from them. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump added on Truth Social. And yet, it’s Trump whose side keeps struggling. He also continues facing legal issues, like the recently issued guilty verdict against his company for a tax evasion scheme and multiple ongoing investigations at the Justice Department led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who keeps scoring wins like the appeals court decision to shut down a review by a court-appointed third party known as a special master of items seized from Trump in Florida. Additional classified documents found in a southern Florida storage unit associated with Trump were also recently provided to the FBI in one of Smith’s probes.
“The people that didn’t show up to The New York Times today should never show up, stay out forever~~It’s Fake News!” Trump added Thursday, weighing in on a labor dispute at the publication he has often antagonized in extreme terms.
