Election: WAPO OpEd: An election that goes way beyond policy issues

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By Jennifer Rubin Opinion writer October 21 at 12:00 PM

With about two weeks to go before the midterms that could strip President Trump of the protection a Republican House and Senate afford him, Trump has returned to his favorite hits — mocking women’s looks (“Horseface,” he called the adult-film to whom he paid hush money), fanning hysteria about a caravan of immigrants from Central America and cheering on violence against the press. He seems convinced that if he can turn up the venom, resentment and fear high enough among his male, white, rural voters he’ll save himself and the party from disaster. He appears unaware or unconcerned that he is thereby lighting a fire under women voters, college-educated voters, young voters and nonwhite voters who are now running in record numbers to the polls in early voting and into the arms of Democrats.

Poll numbers look ominous for the GOP House majority, and much as he’d like to avoid blame, Trump’s own putrid approval numbers — 39 percent of Americans approve, 53 percent disapprove in the latest CBS News poll — weigh down most Republicans on the ballot. (His handling of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s confirmation gets virtually identical low marks.) In the CBS poll, Democrats hold a 9-point lead in the generic congressional poll.

As to Saudi Arabia, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Trump last week demanding information on monies he and the Trump Organization may have received from the Saudis.

“Your Administration’s response calls into question whether you are acting based on the American public’s interests or your own private interests. Moreover, it appears that the steps you have taken to insulate yourself from foreign conflicts of interest are more limited and less adequate than previously understood,” they wrote. They recounted the president’s long history of financial dealings with Saudis. They added, “As President, you continue to accept payments from the Saudi government: in 2017, a lobbying firm working for the Saudi government spent $270,000 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C.; in 2018, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York City and in Chicago received ‘an influx of visitors from Saudi Arabia’ that mitigated significant losses and boosted quarterly revenues.“