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Trump Says He’s Confident GOP Will Keep Control of House

Trump Confident GOP Will Be Successful Keeping Control of House

(Bloomberg) -- The controversy over unsuccessful Democratic attempts to derail the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh energized Republicans, President Donald Trump said on Thursday. So much so, he even thinks his party may retain its majority in the House of Representatives.

"I think that we’re going to be successful," Trump said Thursday during an interview on the "Fox & Friends" morning show on Fox News.

Even as Trump touts the GOP’s prospects, groups aligned with the party have been pulling back in a half-dozen House races to focus resources on contests where they have a better chance to stave off a potential Democratic surge. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates 70 districts as being tossups or just leaning Democratic or Republican.

The districts where national Republicans appear to be either holding their fire or in retreat are currently held by the GOP, and losses there would offer a significant down payment on the 23 seats Democrats need to take control of the House and essentially halt Trump’s agenda in Congress.

Trump said Thursday that although historically the president’s party doesn’t do well in midterms, this year will be different.

"The economy is best it has ever been ever," he said. "I really think Justice Kavanaugh, the way he was treated so badly, this is fine man what they did to him, the Democrats -- I don’t think people will forget that so quickly."

"I think we’ll do very well," he said.

Trump said the GOP is now leading in Senate races "that we weren’t even going to contest."
"I could mention names. I won’t. Maybe I mention one or two. Heidi," he said, referring to Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. Republican Kevin Cramer is now "like 13 points" up, Trump said. Realclearpolitics.com’s polling tracker shows Cramer up an average of 8.7 points.

Even as Trump says the contentious process galvanized his party, an Oct. 10 Politico/ Morning Consult poll found that Democrats appeared to come out of the fight with their base puffed up.

That survey found 46 percent of voters said the Senate made the wrong choice in the narrow vote to approve Kavanaugh and just 40 percent said it was the right one. It also found 77 percent of Democrats said they were highly motivated to vote in the elections compared to 68 percent of Republicans.

To contact the reporters on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Derek Wallbank at dwallbank@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen Hunter

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.