Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats miscalculated on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, because all it did was reengaged Republican voters for the November midterms, according to pollster John McLaughlin.
"That Democrat play against Kavanaugh was really to try to get the Republicans to pull his nomination, or let it fail based on lack of Republican votes, which would have suppressed [GOP voter] turn out," McLaughlin told "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "Instead, it backfired, and now we're all seeing good polls [for Republicans]."
McLaughlin expressed confidence the GOP is going to pick up seats in the Senate with 26 Democrats seats at risk — 10 of which President Donald Trump won by double digits — in "the most important midterm election in our lifetimes," he said.
"You're seeing Republicans — in the areas where Trump did well — go up in the polls because the Trump voters are reengaged and they're coming back out," McLaughlin told host John Catsimatidis. "So, that's really good for our side, and it's created the situation which, if, over the next three weeks, we can keep those Trump voters engaged and match, if not exceed, those anti-Trump voters, we have a shot at holding the House, but we'll definitely pick up some U.S. Senate seats."
Amid the GOP's tenuous hold on the House, McLaughlin calls for his party needing "to play offense" on the rejection of Democratic leaders in the final three weeks of the midterm campaigns.
"The person who is the most unpopular national figure is Nancy Pelosi, and the Democrats are hiding her," McLaughlin said. ". . . Her unfavorables are 55 percent. If the Democrats take over the House, she will become the national leader of the Democratic Party, and she's very, very unpopular.
"The president needs to take her on and expose her because she stands for higher taxes, open borders, fewer jobs. She stands for basically a weaker America. And a government takeover of healthcare."
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