Millions of Americans took to the streets Saturday to protest against President Donald Trump, and panelists on "CNN This Morning" agreed that widespread antipathy should be a warning to Republicans.
This weekend's No Kings rallies drew a reported 8 million people, and Bloomberg's Mario Parker said each round of demonstrations has grown as voters reject the president's policies.
"This takes place against this backdrop of just so much frustration and angst, right?" Parker said. "This is something that's different from what we saw a year ago when we were seeing some of these protests. Now it's the TSA lines, right, the long lines, the gasolineprices that Americans areworried about the war in Iranand other places, that Americansare kind of having anxiety about,as well, and then just theconsternation right now with thecurrent state of affairs,affordability and the politicalclimate, as well. So you put allof that together in a gumbo, andthen you get just this hugeoutpouring. It does thepresident no favors at thispoint to weigh in or give it anymore oxygen, just given just howfar this blaze is."
"What I dothink that is a warning sign forRepublicans in the House and the Senate, who see these things andhave to be shuddering right nowbecause Democrats, if they playtheir cards right, can kind ofuse some of this and maximizeit," Parker added.
Demonstrators carried signs that reflected a broad range of concerns, but CNN's Sara Fischer said that should be of great concern to Republicans.
"I think that broadlyspeaking, it is sort of unified,and that it's a check onauthoritarian power," Fischer said. "That's whatthe No Kings labeling suggests.I think in terms of November,there's two things I'mwatching: One ... in red states, there's momentumis building against with thismovement, and then the second isif you take a look at the intradynamics in the Republican Party, the Iran war is reallyplaying out to sort of bifurcateit and split it. Both of thosethings combined going into November is going to make itvery difficult for Republicans,because independents are lookingat this and they're saying thatthis has gone too far, and so Idon't think that this No Kingsprotest, despite the fact thatthere's 8 million people acrossvarious cities, is thatdisjointed?"
"I think it's broadlya check on presidential power," she added, "and that's going to come back to haunt the Republicans in November."