President Trump is not subtle, and he barely hides his hate for Rick Saccone, the jovial GOP grandpa who seems more at home at the far end of the local bar than the special election ballot for Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District. An Axios report confirms as much, detailing how Trump talks trash about Saccone behind his back.
Under different circumstances, Trump might call Saccone a low-energy "leightweight" "chocker." In a not so alternate reality, Trump might even endorse the Democrat publicly.
Moderate and energetic, Conor Lamb is straight out of central casting for candidates Trump would normally endorse. He is a retired Marine who shoots guns, who feels bad about his support for abortion, and who loves steel tariffs. And Lamb is also just like Trump when it comes to entitlements, infrastructure, and the size of the military: He wants to boost spending and stop the cuts.
Most importantly, to Trump, Lamb just looks like a winner physically and politically. The "square jawed" Democrat is leading 51 to 45 percent in a Monmouth University poll released Monday.
It must have pained the president to stand next to Saccone in Pennsylvania Saturday night. In fact, Trump made it more of a rally about himself than the beleaguered Republican who many consider the worst best chance to stop the start of a blue wave.
“He’s okay. He’s alright,” Trump said of Lamb, adding that the 33-year-old was even “nice looking.” Halfheartedly, the president said that, “Personally, I like Rick Saccone. I think he's handsome." The temptation was evident as Trump explained to the crowd that Lamb sounded great on the campaign trail but would side with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in Washington.
But would that have been such a big deal? Trump is not a reanimated Reagan. He is an aspiring dealmaker. And for the first few months, Trump cast aside orthodoxy for pragmatism, offering compromises on everything from immigration to healthcare. More recently, the president even flirted with an assault weapons ban before his advisers clawed him back to the right.
This sort of bipartisan opportunism has not blossomed, not because of ideological purity on Trump’s part, but because of the threat of impeachment. Once Democrats decided to embrace the #Resistance, they cut themselves off from a sympathetic president who seems to regurgitate the opinions of the last person he spoke with at the White House.
That’s how an unwilling partisan like Trump was moved to endorse a candidate in public that he doesn’t like in private. Minus the #Resistance, maybe Trump endorses Lamb. It seems like he really wants to.
