Former Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock of Virginia said Sunday that her party is no longer trying to win in November. In her view, it's just trying to ease the pain.
On MS NOW, Comstock was asked about the Axios report that GOP donors at a Senate Republican retreat called their pollster "delusional" for predicting the party could grow its majority.
"Yes, this is delusional," Comstock said.
She said the midterms were largely decided months ago, and that Trump is to blame.
"I think elections are won in the summer. And we're now here in late September," she said. "And Donald Trump did everything he could to help Republicans lose over the summer."
She pointed to the Iran war, which she said "is not popular at all," along with high gas prices, rising interest rates and "$7 beef." She also said Trump "didn't spend any money over the summer."
Comstock then brought up a line an unnamed Republican operative gave reporters earlier in the week, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune campaigned in Georgia with GOP Senate candidate Mike Collins. Collins trails by double digits there, she said.
"We're trying to make the patient comfortable," the operative said, according to Comstock.
She said Politico's report that Trump plans an Oct. 2 rally in Mobile, Alabama, shows the same thing.
"I think we're trying to make the patient comfortable by sending Donald Trump to Alabama," Comstock said.
Democratic strategist Amisha Cross, who was also on the panel, took it further.
"America's already on life support," Cross said, "so I don't know how comfortable these patients can get."
Comstock, who represented a Northern Virginia district from 2015 to 2019, has become one of Trump's most outspoken Republican critics.