Despite their best efforts, there was only so much lemonade Fox News’ Special Report could make out of the lemons being served by polling on the midterm elections.
Panelist Marc Thiessen blamed the “chaos in the White House” and “self-inflicted wounds” by Trump because otherwise, he’s done an awesome job. Panelist Steve Hilton suggested that the way to rally the conservative base is to frighten them about what will happen if Democrats win back Congress.
Anchor Bret Baier did his part for the cause by playing a clip of Fox's uber black boogeywoman, Rep. Maxine Waters, saying, “I’m gonna get him,” meaning she’s going to impeach Trump. Although Hannity used part of the same footage to suggest that Waters was threatening violence, Baier played the clip in context, which showed she was talking about impeachment, and laughed, saying that it worked for her.
Thiessen called Trump "probably the most successful president of my lifetime in terms of getting his agenda through, getting the economy moving, judges, everything down the line. And how could a president so successful be so unpopular? It's incredibly frustrating because a man like him, he has a core base of about 43, 44% that’ll be with him no matter what. They're going to go out and vote in these midterm elections. He should be at 50, 51, 52. He should be getting people coming over, based on the data."
Panelist Mara Liasson offered an explanation: "He just cares about the base. That's all he seems to care about. He doesn't want to expand. He just wants to intensify what he's already got."
Watch it below, from the September 10, 2018 Special Report.

In case any Republicans might read this, a direct answer to Thiessen’s question as to why DJ Trump’s good ‘results’ don’t speak louder is: too many people know enough about character to not be surprised that a deal with the Devil often gets early results (e.g. in court appointments)…but for a while only or only seemingly (Trump lucked out on the economic cycle and the cycle of Kim’s weapons development). Trump and his Republicans are cashing out long-term environmental, fiscal, and social capital for a short-sighted, unfair monetary boost to the economy at the least appropriate time in the economic cycle, when deficit spending is least appropriate. Trump Tax law incentivized companies to return to the US profits that had built up for years abroad; I believe much of that was a one-time injection into the US. All for a quick, unsustainable economic/stock market high coming into the midterms. They’ll blame the Dems when the resulting debt hangover crash occurs leading up to 2020.

Unfortunately, 538 doesn’t offer much optimism for the Senate. Republicans have an ~67% of controlling the Senate. Though last night MSNBC offered glimmer of hope as it appears the combination of the NYT insider editorial and Woodward’s book “Fear” have dumped Trump’s numbers which is affecting Republican Senate hopes. Reportedly, Republican Senate internal polling took a hit and they’re in panic mode.
