Collateral Damage: Trump Could Take the GOP Down With Him
Politics Oct 9 2016, 11:46 am ET
Collateral Damage: Trump Could Take the GOP Down With Him
by Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
Collateral Damage: Trump could take the GOP down with him
ST. LOUIS -- We'll be blunt: BEFORE Friday's bombshell news, Donald Trump's presidential campaign was already starting to look like a lost cause, with tonight's debate shaping up to be a make-or-break moment for him and the entire GOP. Indeed, our new NBC/WSJ/Marist polls conducted before Friday find Trump trailing in Florida by three points and in Pennsylvania by 12 points. What's more, they show Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) down four points and with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) barely ahead by two. And so AFTER Friday, here's the nightmare situation for Republicans: You have a good chunk of the party criticizing Trump and demanding him to drop out of the race, and you have the other part (especially Trump's supporters) fighting back. Thirty days before a national election, that hurts voter and volunteer morale, it dampens turnout, and it all makes it harder to win races up and down the ballot. When it becomes every politician for himself or herself -- we saw this play out with Republicans in 2006 and 2008, and with Democrats in 2014 -- it usually doesn't turn out well for that party. Is the House at risk for the GOP? "We have to wait a week and see," the Cook Political Report's David Wasserman tells First Read.
READ MORE: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read...
Collateral Damage: Trump Could Take the GOP Down With Him
by Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
Collateral Damage: Trump could take the GOP down with him
ST. LOUIS -- We'll be blunt: BEFORE Friday's bombshell news, Donald Trump's presidential campaign was already starting to look like a lost cause, with tonight's debate shaping up to be a make-or-break moment for him and the entire GOP. Indeed, our new NBC/WSJ/Marist polls conducted before Friday find Trump trailing in Florida by three points and in Pennsylvania by 12 points. What's more, they show Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) down four points and with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) barely ahead by two. And so AFTER Friday, here's the nightmare situation for Republicans: You have a good chunk of the party criticizing Trump and demanding him to drop out of the race, and you have the other part (especially Trump's supporters) fighting back. Thirty days before a national election, that hurts voter and volunteer morale, it dampens turnout, and it all makes it harder to win races up and down the ballot. When it becomes every politician for himself or herself -- we saw this play out with Republicans in 2006 and 2008, and with Democrats in 2014 -- it usually doesn't turn out well for that party. Is the House at risk for the GOP? "We have to wait a week and see," the Cook Political Report's David Wasserman tells First Read.
READ MORE: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read...
