Friday on Fox News, host Chris Wallace weighed in on President Donald Trump saying he would “personally prefer” a shut down of the government before the midterm elections in November last night at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Wallace said, “It’s been interesting to watch his sort of stream of consciousness because he’s been very open in the various arguments for and against this. He thinks one, it’s a good issue and brings out the base. He also thinks—and that means doing it before the election around September 30 when the government would run out of money. And he also thinks that it will put more pressure on Democrats because it will be a big issue and they will be asked about it.”
He added, “On the other hand there are an awful lot of the Republicans—remember he is not on the ballot in November, it’s congressional Republicans in Senate and House on the ballot—they think it’s a terrible idea, given all his threats, that he will be blamed and seen as the person who led to the shutdown of the government. Generally speaking, in the polls you see that the American public does not like the idea of a shutdown and tends to blame the person they hold responsible for the shutdown. So there is a great nervousness on the part of Republicans. They are not so upset about the idea of a shutdown after the midterms, maybe in a lame duck session, but they sure don’t want to see it before the mid-terms where they think it will create a backlash against them.”
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