Pete King pleads with Trump: Stay out of midterms

Don’t mess up our #RedWave, Don!

Former Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) is pleading with former President Donald Trump to refrain from announcing a new White House campaign until after the midterm elections.

In an opinion piece published Friday, the retired Long Island lawmaker urged Trump to let Republicans focus voters’ attention on President Biden’s supposed failings, not Trump’s failed effort to overturn the 2020 election.

“Mr. Trump, make 2022 a mandate election about Joe Biden’s abysmal failures of leadership, not a reenactment of the 2020 election and its indefensible aftermath,” King wrote in the piece published in The Hill.

King said the GOP is poised to sweep to a historic victory in the November elections if they can just keep talking about Biden whose approval ratings are hovering around the abysmal 40% mark.

“Republican candidates must be able to take advantage of Joe Biden’s weaknesses … without the specter of Donald Trump dominating their campaigns,” King wrote.

Most political analysts on both sides of the aisle agree that the environment looks very favorable to Republicans, especially since the party that is out of power almost always picks up seats in a president’s first midterm elections.

[ Trump plots 2024 campaign launch before midterms, even if it hurts GOP ]

But Trump is planning to announce his own attention-grabbing comeback run for the White House in 2024. Many insiders believe he launch his campaign soon, certainly before Election Day in November.

King, who stepped down from Congress after the 2020 election, agrees with many GOP leaders who say Trump’s entrance into the race would be a political “gift” to Democrats. A Trump run would energizing the liberal base that despises Trump while forcing Republicans to answer damaging questions about Jan. 6 instead of talking about the nation’s ecoomic woes.

Republican candidates will have to thread the needle between sounding reasonable to moderate and independents and earning the ire of Trump if they criticize him for inciting the Jan. 6 riot, he predicted.

“This might not matter to candidates in super-red districts but will be critical to Republican candidates in the swing suburban districts that will determine control of the House,” King wrote.