Newt Gingrich thinks that the leftist media may be deliberately distorting what he says is evidence that a red wave is coming in November.
In a Tuesday Fox News op-ed, the former Speaker of the House said that Republicans are particularly well positioned to regain control of the Senate in a 'mass repudiation of President Joe Biden and the Democrats' policies.
The media, meanwhile, is "at best misunderstanding – and at worst deliberately distorting" the evidence, Gingrich says.
For starters, it’s a midterm in a new president’s term. History tells us these elections almost always cut against the president’s party. Add to this that 74 percent of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction thanks to out-of-control spending, 40-year high inflation, rising prices, surging violence, an unpoliced border, and a host of lesser crises.Â
The Democrat-led Congress has a 79 percent disapproval rating, according to Statista. And Biden is hovering at 53 percent disapproval in an average of polls of likely voters, according to FiveThirtyEight (many polls are much worse for Biden).
But set these broad indicators aside for a moment. -Newt Gingrich
Gingrich notes that the "left-wing media" is pointing to New York's 19th Congressional District special election as a bellwether for November - with Democrat Pat Ryan eeking out a 2% win over Republican Marc Molinaro - however to suggest that this portends Democratic momentum is "either ignorant or dishonest," as the NY 19th District is 'reliably blue' - with the 2020 Democratic candidate winning by 11.6%.
In short, Ryan's win was actually a terrible showing for the Democrat, who should have won by far more.
Gingrich continues: A 2-percentage-point win here should make Democrats nervous – not jubilant. The real lesson from the NY-19 race is for Republicans. President Trump earned 178,000 votes in the district in 2020. Although it was redrawn before this race, Molinaro got only 63,000 votes. Had Molinaro run a more aggressive campaign that focused on big national issues, I suspect he could have reached more of the potentially 115,000 Trump voters who weren’t motivated to turnout for the special election. This would have given him the win.
The media is also obsessing over Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent comment that the Senate elections would be tough for Republicans. In all fairness to McConnell, his super PAC has since poured tens-of-millions of dollars into these races – and he clearly intends to win them. At the same time, pundits and reporters are ignoring the deeply positive, optimistic attitudes from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senate Committee, and a host of other Republican Senate-focused groups. The media is also ignoring the massive Republican voter enthusiasm. We have seen enormous Republican turnout and voter registrations across the country.
via zerohedge