US President Donald Trump’s claim that Republicans have won the 2018 midterm elections was essentially delusional twaddle, according to American political analyst Rodney Martin.
The Republicans lost the House of Representatives to the Democrats in the November 6 midterm elections. The Republicans, however, consolidated their grip on the Senate.
In an interview with Press TV on Friday, Martin said that “President Trump’s response in his rhetoric and hyperbole at his press conference was essentially delusional twaddle. Of course he has immediately attempted to distract the attention and focus away from the Republican loss by firing Attorney General Jeff Session.”
“President Trump is very much worried because now there will be the actual constitutional checks and balances on the executive branch that the Republican House of Representatives completely abrogated. The Democratic House will exercise oversight. They will issue subpoenas,” added Martin, a former congressional staffer based in Los Angeles.
“They will want to look at his tax returns not because of any sort of political vendetta but they will want to look at the conflict of interest. They will want to see where he has financial ties that may have a conflict of interest in terms of his foreign policy and even domestic policy because certainly he has been engaged in rather eccentric decision making if not outright erratic that will lead one to believe that either he is mentally incapacitated or he has some conflict of interest that he just refuses to declare,” he stated.
“So there will be checks and balances that are provided for in the US Constitution that the Republican Party completely abrogated,” he noted.
Martin said that “President Trump has a long history of declaring victory when he’s been absolutely defeated. He has a long history of saying that he does not settle a lawsuit when in fact he has settled lawsuits.”
“So this is completely normal for him to declare victory when he has been defeated. And keep in mind that midterms are not over yet. While the Republicans are still holding a majority of 52 seats in the Senate, in Florida Senator Nelson in recount he may prevail in Florida, and in Arizona [Democratic Representative] Kyrsten Sinema has taken the lead. So the Democrats may pick up the retiring senator Jeff Flake’s seat,” he said.
“So the Senate may end up to be closer than expected and maybe a draw in the Senate. So, no, the Republicans did not win the midterms. And contrary to President Trump’s statement that all of his candidates that he campaigned for have won that’s not entirely true either. In South Carolina, he endorsed a candidate against Congressman Mark Sanford and his candidate lost to the Democrat in the general election,” the analyst concluded.