Kaitlan Collins: Tonight, Indiana Republicans just handed President Trump one of his biggest defeats yet. Why they rebelled against him, and how the president responded tonight in the Oval Office.
I’m Kaitlan Collins. This is the source.
As we air tonight, there’s really no other way to put it. President Trump’s pressure campaign failed.
The president’s party had just rejected his call to add two Republican-friendly seats in the U.S. House of Representatives last November in Indiana, a state he won by nearly 20 percentage points. Those two seats would have helped Republicans retain their majority in next year’s midterm elections.
But tonight those hopes were dashed. When we look at the count here, we see that it’s not even that close. More Republicans actually voted against it than for it.
This is just one of many states we’re seeing across the country where the president is trying to use his influence (which, as we know, can sometimes be enormous) to protect him from a Democratic House in the final two years of his term. That means his Cabinet will be on Capitol Hill conducting investigations, subpoenas, and hearings.
Even though he’s pushing hard for this to happen in Indiana tonight, this is what he said tonight in the Oval Office in response to the rejection of what he’s been urging Indiana Republicans to do.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’m not trying very hard to address this issue. That would be great, if we did that I think we would get two seats. You have a gentleman, I guess it’s the President of the Senate, Bray, whatever his name is, and I hear he’s opposed to it. He’s likely to lose the next primary, no matter which time it is. I hope he does because he does a lot of damage.
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Collins: Roderick BrayThe person the president mentioned there was the state’s Senate Republican leader. But in fact, he won’t run for re-election until 2028.
Now, while the president is not in Indianapolis and he downplayed his efforts here, his presence and his desired outcome were certainly felt during the debate.