November 8, 2017

After first ignoring the election results in Virginia, and then following Trump's lead that the reason Ed Gillespie lost is because he didn't fully embrace Trump, the right wing and their propaganda network at Fox have had a chance to get their talking points aligned and were out in force this Wednesday trying to explain the prior night's losses to their viewers.

RNC Chair and Mitt Romney niece Ronna McDaniel made an appearance on Fox's America's Newsroom and repeated their latest talking point on the loss in Virginia, which is that not only did Gillespie lose because he didn't embrace Trump, the Democrat won because he did.

McDaniel also wants everyone to believe that they're in really great shape for the mid-term elections as long as those billionaire bucks keep rolling on in. Never mind the mood of the electorate that they're supposed to represent.

HEMMER: So now the day after Ronna McDaniel GOP chair woman. Good morning to you. I got a number of things to go through quickly over the next four minutes. From the words of someone else, what happened?

MCDANIEL: Well, we lost two governors races that Democrats typically win. These were in blue states. Virginia is getting bluer and bluer. I think what's very interesting with the Virginia race is that Ralph Northam started running ads saying I'm going to work with this president, and he moderated his positions on sanctuary cities and statues, and we started to see him gain traction in rural Virginia. So, he actually moved the needle by saying I'm going to work with this president.

HEMMER: Also this tweet from overseas. The president sent this out right after the results came out. […] What about that comment about embracing the 45th president?

MCDANIEL: I travel the country. I'll be in Iowa tonight. Our base is for our president. The enthusiasm for the president is still strong. You are seeing it with the record RNC fundraising. Voters want to see candidates embrace this president. And you saw in Virginia Ralph Northam said I'm going to work with the president. They want to see things get done. They want to see people work together across party lines, and that's a lesson I think everyone can take away from last night and that race in Virginia.

And never mind the beltway conventional wisdom that Northam was actually "blowing it in Virginia" with moves like that and alienating his base. In GOP fantasyland, doing things that very well may have suppressed your base turning out, like embracing right wing talking points on sanctuary cities that don't exist, is what won you the election.

McDaniel continued her gaslighting as Hemmer asked her about those moderate voters who were turning away from Gillespie in droves.

HEMMER: Okay, here is another takeaway. Our voter analysis found the following. Some on the screen's not going to surprise you, but one thing will. Women, blacks, college degree, breaking for Northam. The moderates broke for him by twenty six points. And I'm just wondering the suburbs around northern Virginia, and I know they've been trending blue for the past ten, twelve years but the moderates breaking away. How big of a problem is that?

MCDANIEL: Well, like I said, well, first of all, the northern Virginia, the beltway of Washington, D.C., in no way represents the rest of the country, okay? So let's put that aside.

But when it comes to the moderates exactly what I was just saying. Northam ran left to win the primary and then he came to the middle and said I'm going to work with president Trump if it helps Virginians. He changed his position on sanctuary cities. He flipped on the statues position. So he came to the middle and that's how he won moderates. So it may work for Democrats to work with the president.

HEMMER: So should Ed Gillespie should have embraced the president more then given that answer?

MCDANIEL: Ed did work with the president. He had robo-calls and he had tweets, but yeah, I will always say to any candidate in our party the greatest enthusiasm in our party right now is for president Trump. We're seeing it through the fundraising numbers. We're seeing it across the country. I see it as party chair. I absolutely think any candidate should be embracing the president and I think Ed did.

HEMMER: One more thing here on the voter analysis we pumped out here. Was your vote important with regard to president trump? Sixty nine percent said yes for Northam and thirty percent went with Ed Gillespie who said it was important. Democrats are now saying they see some light in this tunnel, and it's been a long time since they've been able to say that when you consider the last four races in various parts of the country. And they also believe they can raise money off this. And you know how much money the RNC has raised and how much the DNC has lacked thus far. Does this give them hope after they see these results now from last night?

MCDANIEL: Listen Bill, we're back to status quo. Republicans won five special elections including Utah last night that they should have won and Democrats won two governorships they should have won. So, nothing really changed, They're going to try to create a big narrative. They should have won Virginia. They should have won New Jersey, but what we're seeing is voters across this country want to see things get done in Washington and at the RNC we're seeing record fundraising in support of president Trump and his agenda.

So as Republicans we need to keep working on behalf of the American people and accomplish the things we ran on. And at the RNC we're already in these battleground states and getting ready for 2018 and I think we're in a better position than we've ever been in the midterm.

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