Donald Trump, USA News (Washington): President Donald Trump has cancelled weekend campaign stops ahead of next week’s midterm elections. The 80-year-old Republican confirmed he would no longer make campaign stops in Kansas and Iowa, with his allies saying he would instead phone in to rallies nationwide after four weeks of travel.
He told reporters he did not “feel like I have to go to Kansas,” a Midwestern state where Senator Roger Marshall, a fellow Republican, is in an unexpectedly competitive race with Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton. President Trump said: “[Senator Marshall] is doing very well…We are going to have a strong Tuesday night.”
The Republican National Committee confirmed it would also cancel a planned rally in Iowa, home to several competitive congressional races. The cancelled in-person rallies were set for Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, and Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday. Since October 1, Trump has hosted 25 rallies in 19 states, often speaking for his party in rural areas of Republican-friendly states.
Tuesday’s midterm elections will determine whether Republicans retain narrow control of the US Senate and House of Representatives. MAGA Inc, a campaign funding group aligned with President Trump, said it would host a series of “tele-rallies” with the President in at least 19 states, including Kansas and Iowa, before Election Day. The President is still expected to travel to rallies in several states before Tuesday’s election, including in Florida on Friday.
President Trump has admitted that his recent series of more-than-hour-long campaign speeches has been challenging. Sounding hoarse in Mississippi on Monday, President Trump said, “God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day.”
On Thursday, after campaigning for Senator Darline Graham in South Carolina, President Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked how he felt after weeks of rallies and whether he was sick of travelling. President Trump said: “Tomorrow I’m doing Florida…He says, ‘What’s the reason for this, sir? That you’re not going to Kansas?’ You know what the reason is? I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas. I’m going to Florida tomorrow, and I’ll do it if something else comes up, but he said, ‘You’re not going to Kansas, sir. Are you feeling well?’ You’ve been following me for two weeks; I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape, you look like hell.”
President Trump has verbally attacked reporters multiple times in the run-up to next week’s midterm elections. The President repeatedly lashed out at The Independent’s White House Correspondent, Andrew Feinberg, as he tried to ask questions, warning him to “be careful,” demanding that he be “quiet”, and calling him a “sick person.” He also lashed out at The Daily Wire’s White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan for a question about the Iran War, where he accused the conservative outlet of “fake news” before quickly rowing back on his comments. President Trump also called a journalist from NBC News a “horrible little reporter” after she questioned him over his support for Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy following his widely condemned ad targeting the Democratic candidate, Amy Acton, which featured her estranged mother.
Polling trends show contests in Republican-leaning states tilting toward Democrats in the campaign’s final days, partly because of President Trump’s low ratings in opinion polls. Republicans are fighting to retain Senate seats in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and Maine to maintain their six-seat Senate majority. Polls show Democrats leading in each state, with independent analysts favouring the Democrats to retake control of the House, while Senate control is considered too close to call. A Democratic victory could limit President Trump and trigger congressional investigations into his administration during its final two years. Republicans are newly on the defensive in once-unthinkable territory, especially in South Carolina, where the state hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since Fritz Hollings, first elected in 1966, who served until 2005.
