Trump meltdown sets off GOP alarms over 2018 midterm [View all]

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico

A three-day party gathering highlights senior Republican officials grappling with a profoundly unstable White House.

By ALEX ISENSTADT 05/13/17 07:18 AM EDT

Members of the Republican National Committee gather in Coronado, Calif., Friday, May 12. | AP Photo

CORONADO, Calif. — With the White House in meltdown mode, top Republican Party officials and operatives gathered at a posh oceanside resort here and contemplated a 2018 midterm election that will test them in unimaginable ways.

At the Republican National Committee’s spring meeting, strategists expressed alarm about a pair of upcoming special House elections and what they might portend for the battle for the lower chamber next year. One high-profile potential candidate outlined how he would distinguish himself from the embattled president. And, as often happens with a party in peril, fingers were already being pointed over next year’s races.

The private talks over the three-day meeting pulled back the curtain on a Republican Party leadership grappling with a profoundly unstable White House. While some attendees shrugged off the firestorm surrounding the firing of FBI Director James Comey and put a positive spin on the latest Trump controversy, others conceded they were struggling to adapt to a political moment without precedent.

“I don’t think there is anything to compare it to. You have a non-politician who’s the president, so he doesn’t do things in a political way and that completely drives insiders of both parties bonkers because they don’t understand it,” said Randy Evans, a Republican National Committeeman from Georgia who was a top adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “Right now, we’re just in a completely different and foreign political environment where pollsters and pundits and focus groups don’t matter.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/13/trump-2018-midterms-gop-alarm-238342