Following Tuesday's repudiation of the Republican Party in the Alabama special election, conservatives are increasingly worried about GOP electoral prospects for the crucial 2018 midterm elections. MSNBC anchor and former George W. Bush communications director Nicolle Wallace smacked down a conservative pundit for trying to minimize the impact of Alabama's special election.
"I'm very happy that Moore lost, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that this means the whole Republican Party is turning on Bannonism or Trumpism," Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol argued. "You have 48 percent of the vote there."
"But let me push back," Wallace interrupted. "Let me push back and put up what USA Today editorialized today."
"I don't even know how to say it, the Republican Party is already branded with Roy Moore and Donald Trump," Wallace noted.
"I think Democrats would do extremely well...in 2018, because I don't think Trumpism is a real majority movement and I think Trump has governed in a way that's reduced it from the 46 percent of the vote he got in 2016," Bill Kristol explained. "If I were a Democrat, I'd be very happy."
"Non-practicing is what I say," Wallace replied.
"I am just speaking here as a Republican or still sort of a Republican," Kristol noted. "I am waiting to see if there’s a genuine break from Trump by Republican elected officials or other Republican candidates, a general repudiation of Bannonism."
"I understand the power and potency of Trump, but why does any of that attach itself to Bannon after he's gone like zero for six?" Wallace asked. "I mean, every race he's touched, he's lost."
"I think they'll lose the House and probably the Senate but it doesn't discredit Trump as much as everyone was saying," Kristol argued. "Trump will react, pivot, he'll sign the tax bill."
"Thirty-two percent approval is a pretty bad indictment," Wallace noted.
