A Republican congressman said Thursday while President Donald Trump wasn't the determining factor in his decision to retire at the end of his term, which expires in 2018, he was a part of it.
Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pennsylvania, said Republican candidates facing re-election would have to surpass challenging hurdles, among them Trump's divisive nature as the figurehead of the party.
"Well, at least in my case, I would say the President was a factor, but not the factor for me deciding to leave," Dent told CNN's Poppy Harlow, while a "a very challenging midterm environment" also contributed to his decision.
"The party of the President typically loses 32 seats in a situation like this," Dent told CNN, but "of course then, Donald Trump, you know, complicates that because he's a very polarizing figure, and so I suspect our challenges will be even greater just because of that."
They know what's coming: an ass-kicking of 2010-style proportions and then some.
"One of the challenges our party has faced is it's become, we have a much stronger base with older voters, and white voters, obviously," he said.
The moderate Republican congressman also criticized the Trump campaign's decision to solidify traditional GOP voters at the expense of newer voting blocs.
"You clearly alienate a lot of Hispanic voters with (Trump's) comments on Mexicans and Latinos, and of course you have the Charlottesville situation," Dent said, adding that "politics and getting elected is an exercise in inclusion and not exclusion."
Dent is pretending that there's a wing of "moderate Republicans" that have been hiding out or something, and that he's not part of the Party of Trump.
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