Trump backtracks on rallies in turbulent end to midterms campaign
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump Friday insisted Republicans “have a shot” at success in the US midterms despite a feverish end to the campaign for elections that will decide control of Congress.
Trump reversed course and reinstated two rallies in Kansas and Iowa a day after canceling them, a move which had raised questions about his health and about the state of the race.
“Typically, a president, whether he’s good or bad, Republican or Democrat, loses the midterms,” Trump told reporters as he hosted Stephen Hubbard, a US detainee recently freed by Russia, in the Oval Office.
“I think we have a shot at doing well. Maybe very well, but you know, pretty well.”
Trump said that he had canceled the two events to hold virtual rallies but that Republicans in Iowa and Kansas called “and they said if you could go, it would be better than a tele-rally.”
But the 80-year-old’s comments were far from a robust assessment of Republican chances in the November 3 vote.
