Page A6From§Eachthe matinee edition — 29 September 2026
As it ran on the front
On Monday, on CNN's The Lead, Bob Cusack, executive editor of the Washington Examiner, said what most of the party will only say off camera: "Trump is putting these Republicans in a rough spot." "Do they appear with him or not?" he asked. "They need his base, but yet..." The sentence trails off in the transcript, the way the party's own math does. That same week, The Hill ran a headline that is really a question: Trump and Republicans have not pulled their endorsement of Texas candidate Bo French — why? The Hill's own framing is blunt: a candidate for elected office in Texas repeatedly using the language of hanging and public execution against political opponents, including a Black former president, is being treated as debatable.
Back up five days, to September 24: Common Dreams reported Republican officeholders "suddenly scrambling to distance themselves" from Trump as his approval fell to a record low less than six weeks before the midterms, and named Senate candidates in Iowa and Michigan among those calling for distance from his agenda. How many of those calls survive contact with a primary ballot is a harder number to get than the quote. The same report noted critics questioning whether the distancing is sincere at all.…
…(cont) Back up three more days, to September 21: the number under the distancing. A Reuters poll put Trump's approval at 32 percent, the worst reading of either term, with rising Republican-voter dissatisfaction named as one driver.
Back up twelve more days, to September 9: the endorsement record the party is now managing around. Most Trump-backed candidates cleared their primaries. Several marquee ones did not — governor's races in Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina and Wyoming all went the other way.
Which is the whole story, stated once: the party has the muscle to withdraw an endorsement and the polling to justify it. It has not distanced from the one endorsement built on hanging language aimed at a Black former president, or answered the question The Hill printed instead of an answer: why.
“They call it a "rough spot" because calling it a liability would mean doing something about it, and doing something costs votes they still need in November. Same week they're polling at a record low, they leave a man who talks about hanging a Black former president on the ballot with their name attached. That's not indecision, that's arithmetic — the base is worth more to them than the line they won't cross.”
“Look, every party has candidates who say things in the heat of a primary — that's not an endorsement of the language, that's just — okay, it is technically an endorsement, of the candidate, who said the language. But strategically, you don't hand the other side a win five weeks out by admitting Cusack has a point. Did I say Cusack has a point? Forget I said that.”
Earlier in this story
The receipts
Trump promised Ukraine peace in 24 hours - CNN counted 53 separate times he made that promise CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Republicans put in difficult position on whether to side with Trump: Bob CusackWashington Examiner executive editor Bob Cusack said Republicans are in a challenging position on how to navigate President Donald Trump’s negative public perception. “Trump is putting these Republicans in a rough spot,” Cusack said Monday on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper.
If you are a person running for elected office in Texas, of all places, and you repeatedly use the language of hanging and public execution against political opponents, including a Black former president, that should be problematic for everyone.
· 'Cowardice, Not Conviction': Republicans Try to Back Away From Toxic Trump After Years of Subservience from the morgue, 24 Sep 2026
· As Iran War and Economic Struggles Persist, Trump Approval Rating Hits Record Low from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Where Trump’s 2026 endorsement record stands after primary season from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.