White House reporter warns Trump's non-political staff has no idea what they'll face when Democrats take over
CNN's White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins noted that President Donald Trump's White House doesn't understand the difficulties they're about to face when Democrats take over in January.
During a panel discussion with CNN's Jake Tapper, the host explained that the president is trying to be "on brand" that he's still "winning" when he's doing anything but.
"Sixty percent disapprove -- in his approval rating," Tapper quoted from a recent Gallup tracking poll. "So the president might be on-brand when he talks about how he's winning. He's not. He's not winning and the last few weeks have been pretty bad for him."
"Behind closed doors, he is still really irritated about losing the House," Collins said, citing her sources. "That's why you see him slip up and make comments like he did in Tupelo last night. 'Well, I lost the House, but I can't go everywhere. It's not my fault I can't go and campaign everywhere.' I think it's been a bad few weeks for President Trump."
When it comes to 2020, Collins said there's a question about whether it will be worse for them then the midterms were.
"But if you look at what happened with [General Motors] yesterday, that is going to have some devastating effects if we continue to see something like that happen and something happens with the economy before 2020, that is what the White House should be more worried about than what a few Democrats were saying after the midterms," she continued.
Former Obama White House alumni Jen Psaki is someone who's experienced losing the House to an opposing power. During the discussion, she explained that if the Trump White House thought the last two years were bad, they better suit up.
"Whether it's right or wrong, [Democrats] will make it their job to hold everybody accountable who has done anything they don't like over the last two years," she said. "So, in this case, we have focused a lot on Russia and what they're going to do in the Oversight Committee, Intelligence Committee, but it's going to be much more than that. They will be investigating using subpoena power for HHS. They will be using it for EPA, they will be using it on every issue they possibly can.... It will be all-consuming for the White House. And I think, if they thought the last two years were hard, they have not seen anything yet."
Collins said that the White House hasn't fully grasped that fact yet.
"A lot of people who came with President Trump to Washington were people who weren't in Washington before that," Collins said. "So, I do not think that there's a serious understanding in the West Wing of what January is going to be like."
Watch the discussion below: