President Donald Trump’s blunt admission Thursday about why he’s campaigning in ruby red Texas exposed a potential warning sign for Republicans, according to CNN White House correspondent Kristen Holmes.
Holmes told viewers on CNN that Trump is beginning what he says will be a 32-day midterm campaign blitz with stops in Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama.
“Those are hugely red, deep-red states,” Holmes noted. “He’s not going to these swing states.”
Trump has said part of the reason for the travel is to thank the voters who supported him. But Holmes pointed to another “interesting” reason for the MAGA leader's stop in the Lone Star State: Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton.
Trump endorsed Paxton in the primary and now “he has to help carry him across the finish line,” Holmes said. Asked why he would still travel to Texas after Paxton was caught on leaked audio saying Trump’s recent midterm convention hurt him politically, Trump gave what Holmes called a “much more frank” answer.
“He said that there is a big election there, and we Republicans have to win it,” Holmes reported Thursday.
The admission, she suggested, revealed the stakes for the GOP.
“Which goes to show you that there is still some concern that even in deep-red Texas, a Republican candidate cannot pull it off in the Senate.”
Holmes added Thursday that when she asked Trump whether he had spoken to Paxton about the leaked remarks, the president told her he had not.
“Likely, I can imagine that’s going to come up today,” she said.
