Republican Party an 'unprecedented dumpster fire': Democratic strategist

A veteran Democratic strategist painted a dark picture for Republicans Monday ahead of November's election, confidently claiming that the GOP’s intraparty conflict makes it an “unprecedented dumpster fire” that could end up helping Democrats.

Simon Rosenberg said that between a House GOP in chaos over retiring members, the potential of a new Speaker fight and a presumptive nominee going after a prominent ally, Republican problems could overshadow voter concerns with President Biden.

“The Democratic team is really together right now. You’ve just seen in the last 10 days Biden do events with Obama and Clinton and Bernie Sanders,” Rosenberg said in a CNN interview with Kaitlan Collins on Monday. “And there was no serious opposition to Biden in the primary.”

“On the other side, Trump is facing an unprecedented rebellion in the Republican Party from people like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney. Serious people who’ve said they’re not going to be voting for Donald Trump,” he continued. “We saw what happened with the Haley voters and the polling and these early states where a big chunk of Haley voters said they were not going to vote for Donald Trump, that they’d be open to voting for Biden.”

Biden has openly courted primary supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley since she left the race, hoping to sway moderate Republicans to his side by focusing on abortion rights and former President Trump's perceived threats to democracy.

“And I think the Republican Party has splintered,” Rosenberg said. “I think something broke inside the Republican Party after Dobbs in the spring of 2022 where, even for a big chunk of Republicans, this was just a bridge too far. It was too much.” 

“And I think you’re seeing now a Democratic Party that’s unified, strong, winning elections, raising lots of money, and a Republican Party that is an unprecedented dumpster fire in my view right now,” he added.

Abortion rights are expected to be the main rallying issue for Democrats in November, with recent changes in state law and statewide referendums expected to push voter turnout even in red states like Florida. 

Trump announced his stance on the issue Monday, after months of going back and forth between hinting that he would back a strict 15-week national ban and leaving the issue to the states. The former decided on the more moderate approach, going against his former GOP primary rivals and ruffling feathers in his pro-life, evangelical base.