Republicans are scrambling to paint a Democratic gubernatorial win in Kentucky and a blue wave in the Virginia state legislature as anything other than a rebuke of President Donald Trump.
After Democrat Andy Beshear narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Governor Matt Bevin in Kentucky, Trump and his allies promptly threw Bevin under the bus, claiming that he was double digits behind Beshear until Trump showed up to a rally in Kentucky last week, thus evening the score.
GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel had a more precise polling deficit for Bevin.
And, of course, Fox News host Laura Ingraham followed suit.
But CNN's Daniel Dale and MSNBC's Jesse Rodriguez found the President's claim baseless. As polling clearly showed, Bevin was actually up 5 points mere days before election day.
Ah, but never fear -- after scouring polls, CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale finally found one similar to Trump's claim.
However, HuffPost's White House Correspondent says that Trump's campaign manager told the President that Bevin was up five points, more in keeping with Rodriguez's tweet.
While Kentucky did see some Republican wins, the news was generally bad for the GOP, and especially for Trump, whose rallies seemed to hurt rather than help his candidate.
If this momentum remains consistent, it could mean bad news for Trump both on his reelection and impeachment fronts.
Though Team Trump is downplaying the victories now, it's worth noting that Trump said at his Kentucky rally just ahead of the election:
"You gotta vote because if you lose, it sends a really bad message. It just sends a bad and they're going to build it up. If you win, they're gonna be like 'ho hum.' If you lose, they're gonna say, 'Trump suffered the greatest defeat in the history of the world.' You can't let that happen to me."
Thankfully, Kentucky voters just did.
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