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Donald Trump’s team is publicly proclaiming confidence as his rivals head into a week-long convention in Chicago which is set to be centered around touting the wins of the Biden administration and coronating Kamala Harris as the next generation of leadership for the party.
But Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s close allies in Congess, offered a far less-than-optimistic outlook on Sunday when speaking about the race for the White House.
Speaking to moderator Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press, the Republican senator warned that Trump may very well lose the election if he does not shift his strategy and end the personal attacks on Harris.
“[I]n the advice-giving column, here's what I would say. Donald Trump – President Trump can win this election,” Graham said, putting emphasis on the image of Trump as president and the connections to his administration’s policies.
“His policies are good for America, and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. [But] Donald Trump, the private [citizen], the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.”
He added: “So, I'm looking for President Trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country to fix broken borders, to lower inflation.”
WATCH: Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC (R) says “policy is the key to the White House,” while Donald Trump focuses on personal attacks against Kamala Harris.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 18, 2024
“If you have a policy debate, he wins. Donald Trump the provocateur, the showman, may not win this election.” pic.twitter.com/HnKaq4nlo4
It was a stark warning, and a very public one from a loyalist Republican senator who was one of the first in the party to come around and return to the Trumpworld fold in the wake of his initial denouncement of the former president after the January 6 Capitol riot.
It was also a sign that Republicans on Capitol Hill are possibly now beginning to feel the same pressures and worries that their Democratic colleagues were feeling just one month ago, before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Members of Congress in both parties are still wondering what the House and Senate will look like next year and are eyeing the top of the Republican and Democratic tickets as key factors in the performances of the respective parties in the fall. Right now, Democrats hold a narrow one-vote majority in the Senate, while Republicans hold an only slightly larger margin in the House of Representatives.
Those realities are thought to have played heavily into the pressure campaign that eventually resulted in Biden’s exit from the race last month. Democrats in swing districts were growing increasingly apoplectic about their chances in November, and the president’s party was privately reported to be worried about wipeouts in both chambers. As a result, a steady stream of lawmakers from Biden’s party emerged to publicly call on him to drop out after his dismal debate performance against Trump in June.
Under Harris, however, Democrats have seen their poll numbers rebound to competitive levels in ever major battleground states and have even risen to potentially-threatening levels in some red-leaning swing states as well.
Possibly equally as important, the party has registered thousands of campaign volunteers in many of those swing states since Biden dropped out, signalling a surge of enthusiasm from the party’s more loyal voters.
JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, batted back worries about Republican poll numbers during an appearance Sunday on Fox News. National polling averages generally show the Trump-Vance ticket is now trailing the Harris-Walz campaign, though some polls in key swing states have shown the Republican ticket ahead.
“I’m telling you, every single person who’s watching this, the Trump campaign is in a very, very good spot,” Vance said on Fox News Sunday. “I think there are a lot of polls that actually show[Harris] stagnating and leveling off.”
