Comment Republican critics of Donald Trump renewed their push Sunday to distance their party from the former president, warning it could hurt Republicans’ chances of winning a Senate runoff in Georgia next month if he announces plans to another White House bid on Tuesday. “It’s basically the third election in a row that Donald Trump has cost us the race,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And it’s like, three strikes, you’re out.” Hogan said it would be a mistake to nominate Trump again as the party’s presidential nominee in 2024 after Republicans failed to take control of the Senate and made much smaller gains in the House than projected in the midterm elections. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result,” he added. “Donald Trump kept saying we’re going to win so much that we’re going to get tired of winning. I’m tired of losing. That’s all he’s done.” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) echoed Hogan’s comments on ABC’s “This Week,” calling Don Bolduc, his state’s Senate candidate, a “Republican extremist” and saying the results across the state country are tantamount to “rejection of this. extremism.” Democratic lawmakers remained confident on Nov. 13 after their party won control of the Senate, although control of the House remains unknown. (Video: The Washington Post) “America has been asking for more moderation for some time,” said Sununu, who like Hogan is a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024. “There’s just certain parts of the Republican Party that haven’t listened that well. We just need to go back to basics. It’s not unfixable.” For his part, Trump blamed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for losses to Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters and others, saying he had mismanaged the primary. “It’s Mitch McConnell’s fault,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Spending money to defeat major Republican candidates instead of supporting Blake Masters and others was a big mistake.” Other Republicans tried to present the election results in a more positive light, noting that they were likely to take control of the House. “The Republicans will win. The majority will be a very small majority, but we have an opportunity over the next two years to be the last line of defense to block the Biden agenda,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said on “Fox News Sunday.” ” He predicted that Republicans could increase their numbers in the House in the 2024 elections. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill, said midterm voters showed they wanted nothing to do with extremism. He said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) must decide whether to fend off Trump’s “toxic influence on the party” if given the chance to run for speaker. Republican rivals are beginning to plan for a post-Donald Trump future State of the Union speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declined to speculate on whether Democrats would lose control of the House once the pending votes are tallied, but noted that the party far exceeded expectations. “I think we see a path to the future that is much brighter than what was predicted by the experts,” he said, adding: “Who would have thought two months ago that this red wave would turn into a small trickle if this not at all? But we never believed it.” Pelosi said Republicans hurt themselves by taking what she believes was the low road after the home invasion attack on her husband, Paul. “It wasn’t just the attack. It was the Republican response to it, which was disgraceful,” he said. Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania attorney general who won the governor’s race in a landslide for Democrats, said he believes concrete solutions play better than attacking voters in Trump’s home districts. Some Republicans are calling for the Senate leadership election to be delayed “I can just tell you what we did,” Shapiro told “State of the Union” when asked about a Democratic playbook. “We showed up and treated people with respect. And we talked to them about practical things that should make their lives better.” Also on Sunday’s programs, Republican senators debated whether to delay the leadership election until after the Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia. Senators Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin called for the vote to be suspended. McConnell is seeking to continue his term as minority leader. “If we hold this election right away on Wednesday, you’ll probably have done more campaigning in a high school presidential election than we would in the most deliberative body in the world,” Johnson said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Tom Cotton of Arkansas on “Face the Nation” said they supported McConnell. Cotton noted that no one has challenged him yet. “The great wrestling champion Ric Flair used to say, ‘To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man,’” Cotton said. “And so far, no one has had the nerve to come forward and challenge Senator McConnell.”
