Republicans are dusting off a familiar playbook this midterm cycle, flooding the airwaves with soft-on-crime attacks against Democratic candidates nationwide. New Democratic polling suggests there's a single word that could blunt the whole strategy: corruption.

GOP candidates from Mississippi to Michigan have leaned hard into crime-focused messaging, tying rivals to old "defund the police" rhetoric or attacking their records as former prosecutors, Politico reported. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is hammering Democratic opponent Scott Colom over crime rates during his tenure as district attorney, while a House GOP-aligned super PAC has branded Michigan candidate Christina Hines "the kind of liberal prosecutor criminals just love." Similar attacks are hitting Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin, Christina Bohannan in Iowa, and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's pivotal Senate race.

GOP pollster Whit Ayres explained why Republicans keep returning to the tactic given the party's broader struggles this cycle. "Focusing on crime is more helpful than talking about gas prices," he said.

But the strategy is showing real cracks. Republican Michael Whatley has built much of his North Carolina Senate campaign around blaming former Gov. Roy Cooper for prisoner releases and crime, including crime that wasn't even in his state. The attacks haven't dented Cooper's standing, who's stayed ahead in every poll. Sen. Thom Tillis, whose retirement created the open seat, told CNN the tactic amounts to an unforced error, and separately suggested to Politico that voters have largely tuned the messaging out.

Democrats aren't just playing defense, either. El-Sayed is airing ads touting his support from local sheriff's deputies, while gun-safety group Giffords PAC has launched a $10 million ad campaign tying Rogers and several House Republicans to the gun lobby. A new survey for Giffords, conducted by Democratic pollster Global Strategy Group, found a path forward for Democrats on the issue: pairing tougher talk on crime prevention and support for police with a broader pivot toward attacking Republican corruption.

Giffords Executive Director Emma Brown said the findings point to a real chance to break a pattern that's historically favored Republicans.

"I think we have a real opportunity here to break that cycle," Brown said.

The crime messaging fight is unfolding against a rockier broader landscape for the GOP. According to Axios, a pollster briefing operatives and donors at the National Republican Senatorial Committee's Sea Island retreat this weekend suggested the party could actually grow its Senate majority in November, a forecast one attendee reportedly dismissed outright as unrealistic. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court dealt Republicans another setback Friday by again blocking a GOP-drawn congressional map in Missouri, prompting Trump to complain on Truth Social that the court "will just not let Missouri have an Election Victory."

President Donald Trump lashed out at Axios Monday over a report that he was willing to offer Iran economic relief in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program.

“Axios just released a story that ‘Trump’ offered Sanctions Relief and Frozen Funds to Iran. This is untrue. I offered them NOTHING!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Axios’ story, like most others, is a HOAX, used only for purposes of satisfying their Trump Derangement Syndrome,” he added. “They should withdraw this fake story, IMMEDIATELY!”

Trump appeared to be responding to an Axios report earlier Monday headlined, “Trump offers Iran economic relief for concrete nuclear concessions.”

Axios reported that Trump was willing to provide sanctions relief and release frozen Iranian funds in return for “concrete Iranian steps regarding the nuclear program.” The report cited U.S. officials.

Axios, along with CNN and MS NOW, is part of Trump’s White House media ban.

MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace's jaw hit the floor on Monday, following reports from U.S. Ambassador to China David Perdue that President Donald Trump is considering an arms sale to China — something the U.S. government swiftly denied was on the table.

Perdue's remarks to The New York Times, said Wallace, "had the White House actually backpedal, going into damage control mode, which is a rare thing this time."

This apparent offer to China's leader Xi Jinping is especially galling, she noted, when "approved arms sales to our ally, a fellow democracy that is deeply needed by China, Taiwan, have been withheld. A package of $14 billion worth of weapons was approved by Congress earlier this year, but has yet to leave the State Department. Sound familiar?"

Wallace displayed a statement from House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA), who, in her words, "noted how bonkers the admission by U.S. Ambassador Perdue was, yet at the same time, how it is what we've come to expect from the country's president."

"I guess it's not stunning to me that President Trump would have made that offer to President Xi," said Smith. "As we know, Trump bounces all over the place in terms of his relationships with just about everybody and says a lot of deeply unhinged things. I can conceive of him saying that, but that Ambassador Perdue would repeat it — I have a lot of respect for Ambassador Perdue ... I think he's doing a good job. But yeah, and let me just be clear that that is not going to happen. It's illegal. It's bad policy, and it's not where we're headed."

"We don't have any psychologists, but we'll try to get to the bottom of it," added Wallace. "We know Trump loves to cozy up to dictators, but offering to sell them weapons goes way beyond that."

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