Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:02 pm
Even Mitch McConnell, who supports Donald Trump for president, thinks the presumptive Republican nominee could be the GOP’s next Barry Goldwater.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, the Senate majority leader said he was worried that Trump could alienate Latino voters the same way conservative Goldwater did with African-American voters in the 1964 presidential election. Lyndon Johnson was able to carry 44 states (and D.C.) Â in a landslide victory against Goldwater that year.
McConnell also criticized the presumptive GOP nominee for throwing mud at fellow Republicans even after he has effectively secured his party’s nomination.
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“I think the attacks that he’s routinely engaged in, for example, going after Susana Martinez, the Republican governor of New Mexico, the chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association, I think, was a big mistake,” McConnell said.
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McConnell’s comments reflect the broader fear of many Republicans that Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric – particularly his comments about Mexican immigrants being “rapists” and “criminals” – will doom them with an increasingly diverse national electorate.
A recent Fox News poll showed Hillary Clinton crushing Donald Trump among Latino voters by 40 points – a number that would likely guarantee the White House to the Democratic candidate.
McConnell seems to be going through the motions that most establishment figures are when it comes to Trump. They aren’t thrilled about supporting him – and even frequently criticize his outlandish and dangerous proposals – but they publicly support him because he’s the GOP nominee and they want to salvage at least some down-ballot races.
Republicans know that Trump’s candidacy is a ticking time bomb. The fact that Mitch McConnell is even willing to draw a comparison between his party’s presumptive nominee and Barry Goldwater tells us all we need to know about what the GOP expects to happen in November.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
