“THERE ARE A LOT OF GREAT THINGS WE CAN DO TOGETHER”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Nov. 7, 2018) — At 11:58 a.m. EST, President Trump began a scheduled press conference to provide reaction to Tuesday night’s congressional elections.
His first statement was that it was “a big night” and that the U.S. Senate, with its expansion of several more seats, defied conventional history for an incumbent president’s party. Trump noted that of 11 senatorial candidates for whom he campaigned over the last week, nine won their races.
“History will see what a job we did,” he said two minutes into his remarks. “There have been only four elections since 1934 in which a sitting president has gained even a single Senate seat,” he said.
Some races have not yet been called, particularly in Western time zones. Trump said he expects the Senate gain between two and four seats.
Senators-elect from previous Democrat holds include Josh Hawley in Missouri; Kevin Cramer in North Dakota; and Mike Braun in Indiana.
Trump said that 43 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives decided to retire rather than seek re-election, which affected the Democrats’ retaking of that chamber on Tuesday night.
He characterized four governors’ races as successes and helpful to him in his re-election bid for 2020. “Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Georgia. Can’t get much more important than that,” Trump said.
Trump said that he interprets the gains in the Senate to be a reaction from voters against Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s handling of the confirmation process of now-U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
He then cited a number of incumbent and new congressional candidates who “decided not to embrace…what we stand for” who lost their races. Some of those are Mia Love of Utah and New Jersey senatorial candidate Bob Hugin, who lost to incumbent Robert Menendez.
“Candidates who backed our message excelled,” Trump observed.
He complimented Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for working hard to see Republicans elected or re-elected. “We actually work very well together,” Trump said of McConnell.
Trump said he expects that new leaders in the House will approach him with plans for infrastructure and health care bills. He praised former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for the speech she gave last night stressing bipartisanship when it became apparent that Democrats would retake the lower chamber.
“It really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation,” he remarked. “We have a lot of things in common on infrastructure…there are a log of great things we can do together.”
He suggested that partisanship should be “put aside” now that the midterm elections are over.