Trump Says ‘Too Bad’ to Losing Republicans Who Wouldn’t Embrace Him
Trump Says ‘Too Bad’ to GOP Losers Who Wouldn’t Embrace Him
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump mocked by name several Republicans who lost in Tuesday’s election after refusing to “embrace” him in their campaigns.
Lawmakers who told him to “stay away” from their races “did very poorly,” Trump said at a White House news conference a day after his party lost control of the House of Representatives.
He singled out GOP Representatives Mike Coffman of Colorado, Mia Love of Utah, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Peter Roskam of Illinois, Erik Paulsen of Minnesota, John Faso of New York and Bob Hugin, who challenged Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey.
“Too bad, Mike!” Trump said of Coffman.
“Mia gave me no love,” he said of Love. “And she lost. Too bad, sorry about that, Mia!”
Love is trailing her Democratic opponent Ben McAdams, but her race hasn’t yet been called.
“And Barbara Comstock was another one,” he said. “I mean, I think she could have won that race. But she didn’t want to have that embrace. For that, I don’t blame her. But she lost -- substantially lost.”
Comstock lost by more than 12 points to Democrat Jennifer Wexton.
“Peter Roskam -- didn’t want the embrace. Erik Paulsen didn’t want the embrace,” Trump said. “And in New Jersey, I think he could’ve done well but didn’t turn out too good. Bob Hugin, I feel badly because I think that’s something that could’ve been won, a race that could’ve been won.”
“John Faso. Those are some of the people that decided for their own reason not to embrace, whether it’s me or what we stand for,” Trump said.
One Republican who announced his retirement ahead of the midterms, Representative Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania, angrily fired back at the president.
“To lose bc of POTUS & have him piss on u,” he said in a tweet. “Angers me to my core.”
Trump said he wasn’t sure whether he should be happy or sad about their defeats. “I feel just fine about it,” he said. But he had endorsed several of the lawmakers in tweets, such as Faso.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net;Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Kevin Whitelaw
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