Fox News contributor Bill McGurn: “Donald Trump may be losing his touch”
McGurn: “Sometimes it seems Donald Trump would rather defeat his enemies in the Republican Party than have Republicans win if he's not holding the spotlight”
Published
Citation From the November 15, 2022, edition of Fox News' America Reports
BILL MCGURN (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): They have to line it up, but they have to stand for something. You can't be just you don't like the personality or want to punch them, you didn't think they did well in the midterms. People — you know, we have inflation, we have Russia, we have China, gas prices — people want to know what are Republicans going to deliver, you know, if we — if they get the House, which is likely, they can have big effects simply by stopping or tempering the president's plans. But I think they have to go further. You know, there's a lot of things they could do. Send up bills that are hard to veto, like drilling and so forth. So they can at least drive the agenda, if not for next year, not to win it, to set up for 2024 and identify what both parties start for.
SANDRA SMITH (ANCHOR): OK, so that's what you are writing about, Bill. OK, here is your new piece in The Wall Street Journal, “A Donald Trump preview of the 2024 presidential election.” What you are saying: The bitterest pill for him isn't that Oz lost but that DeSantis won resoundingly. So what is the point in your piece here, sir?
MCGURN: I think the point is Donald Trump may be losing his touch. In 2016 he had an uncanny ability to read the room, what Republican voters want, and he mowed down like 16 GOP candidates. But this time he's attacking Ron DeSantis and Glenn Youngkin, successful Republicans. You know, one of the few bright spots of the last two years, and people I think even his own supporters aren't quite there with that. They want to know why. Sometimes it seems Donald Trump would rather defeat his enemies in the Republican Party than have Republicans win if he's not holding the spotlight. And I don't think his voters are there. I think they are shifting. They don't hate him, but they — more and more of them think sadly his time has passed and they want a winner.