Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon discussed the upcoming midterm elections Sunday, predicting a much narrower race than expected, The Hill reports.
According to Bannon, there will be no “blue wave” – as what is thought to be an impending Democratic victory is often popularly referred to – and the Republicans have a good chance of holding the House.
“All this promise of this massive blue tsunami is over. This is going to be very hard fought. It’ll come down to a handful of districts. I think this is a very narrow gate that the Republicans have to go through,” Bannon said, before continuing. “I think there’s a chance to actually hold the House … Now, it’s incumbent that the Trump voters get out … because this thing is going to come down to the wire.”
Bannon’s predictions are in line with a leaked RNC poll which, as detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, suggests that this fall’s midterms are, essentially, a referendum on President Donald Trump.
Public Opinion Strategies, the polling firm that conducted the RNC survey, observed that the upcoming midterms will not be defined by how well the economy is doing, or by how good U.S. relations with other countries are, but by how voters feel about President Trump.
Historically, this has been the case for every U.S. president. Furthermore, for sitting presidents, midterms usually mean bad news since no president has ever – bar George W. Bush and Franklin Delano Roosevelt – done well in midterm elections. The sitting president’s party usually lost.
Will that be the case for Donald Trump and the Republican Party?
According to Steve Bannon, the Republicans will keep control of the Senate, but the House race is “a complete dogfight.”
Bannon: Midterm battle for House is a “complete dogfight” https://t.co/XI1ruIEXYo pic.twitter.com/oIac6gZfMI
— The Hill (@thehill) October 28, 2018
Election prognosticators predict that the Democratic Party will take over the House, The Hill notes, with about an 85 percent chance of picking up 23 seats, which is how much the Democrats need to regain control of the lower chamber.
Apart from discussing the midterms, Bannon addressed another burning issue: The migrant caravan approaching the Southern U.S. border. According to the former White House chief strategist, this issue has to be handled by governments of Central American countries, and not by the United States. According to Time , the so-called migrant caravan rejected Mexico’s offer to stay in the country and continues moving toward the United States.
Bannon also predicts that President Trump will wait until after midterms to deliver on one of his key campaign promises: the border wall. “Trump is going to stop playing games with Congress after this election. And he’s going to force his border wall,” he said.