'The SS Trump is floundering' -- and Republicans may 'jump off the ship like fleeing rats': Steve Schmidt

Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt painted an "ominous" picture of President Donald Trump's approval ratings during a Monday evening appearance on MSNBC.

Schmidt was interviewed about the 2020 elections by Lawrence O'Donnell on "The Last Word," who asked about the latest presidential polling.

"Well, the way that the campaigns are looking at this now is they're looking at the average of all of the polls. So you're looking at an 8%, 9% lead for [Joe] Biden by the average, but you're looking at decimation inside Trump's internal numbers on all of the questions of leadership, on decency, on being up to and fit for the job of being president," he replied.

"He's just lost the confidence of the American people during this season of ineptitude and incompetence in his performance and you see that throughout the poll," he explained.

Trump's dismal polling could also hurt Senate Republicans facing reelection in 2020.

"Now, when you look at the state polls and you look at the trajectory of some of the Senate races, if you're a Republican, you're starting to tremble. These numbers are very, very ominous at this hour," he noted.

"And so you could see in the coming months more and more of these Republicans starting to jump off the ship like fleeing rats. But, you know, at the end they've lashed their masts to the S.S. Trump, and the S.S. Trump is floundering in heavy seas -- that's what the poll number says," he concluded.

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