Trump Has Reportedly Taken to Privately Trashing GOP Candidate He Rallied For in PA

President Donald Trump was in Pennsylvania last night to hold a rally for Republican state lawmaker Rick Saccone, who is facing a tough special election on Tuesday.

And while the president offered warm words for Saccone in his speech, behind closed doors he has trashed as a “weak” candidate, according to a new report in Axios.

Per Axios’ Jonathan Swan:

Trump thinks Saccone is a terrible, “weak” candidate, according to four sources who’ve spoken to the president about him.

Trump held that opinion of Saccone before leaving for the rally, and I’ve not been able to establish whether his time on the ground with the candidate changed his mind.

Saccone’s Democratic opponent, Conor Lamb, is seen as a “far superior candidate” by other Republicans as well, per the report. The Democrat is also a better fundraiser, having “outraised Saccone by a staggering margin — nearly 500 percent.”

Tuesday’s special election, being held in a ruby red House district of western Pennsylvania that Trump won by double-digits in 2016, is looking like a toss-up — a fact that should concern Republicans.

The obvious was pointed out by FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver:

Stating the hopefully-obvious, but the fact that PA-18 is competitive is a really bad sign for Republicans. It voted for Trump by 20 points and Romney by 17.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 11, 2018

The president’s Saturday night rally was a veritable bonanza of vintage 2016 campaign-Trump, replete with multiple jabs at the press, bluster and “build the wall” chants — though aside from a few warm words, there wasn’t much in the way of praise for Saccone.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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