Corey Lewandowski said on Sunday that President Trump “wants to see every Republican reelected” whether or not they break with him
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Lewandowski, an adviser to the president’s reelection campaign, was asked if Trump thought Republicans had a better chance of winning a majority in the House than retaining their advantage in the Senate after The Washington Post reported that Trump had doubts about the GOP holding on to the upper chamber.
Lewandowski said the president has been “aggressively” campaigning for Republican senators, and that surrogates have been helping fundraise for GOP incumbents in battleground states like Maine and Arizona.
“This president’s been very forward in helping U.S. Senate candidates around the country be successful. He’s helped raise money,” Lewandowski said. “And we feel very, very strongly that we’re going to retain our majority in the U.S. Senate.”
“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd further pressed Lewandowski on the president reportedly saying that he didn’t want to help some of the senators, and specifically asked if Trump wanted to see Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) reelected. Collins has been publicly critical of Trump and voted against the GOP package to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
“Well, I think the president wants to see every Republican reelected, regardless of who they are and if they break with the president on some of the issues,” Lewandowski said, adding that the “alternative is much worse.”
“Look, if [Sen.] Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) becomes the Senate majority leader, we’re going to have a very different path forward,” Lewandowski said. “And we would see less Supreme Court justices nominated, we’d see less federal bench members nominated. So, look, we want a Republican majority to be crystal clear.”
The GOP would need to win 18 House seats on Nov. 3 to grab the majority, but Inside Elections predicts that Democrats will likely gain 10 to 20 seats in the chamber. In addition, The Cook Political Report has predicted Democrats will expand their majority.
The Post reported that some strategists think Trump’s coronavirus response and his behavior in the first presidential debate last month may have helped Democrats in some tight Senate races.