Fox News contributor Karl Rove believes that if the Democratic Party pushes through its $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package without any support from Republicans, it will hurt them in 2022.

Falling back on the 2009 stimulus bill signed by then-President Barack Obama, and the subsequent red wave in the 2010 election where Republicans won a net gain of 63 House seats –  the largest shift in seats since 1948 – and picked up six Senate seats, Rove said the current pandemic relief bill is even less popular.

Appearing on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Rove first discussed the Democrats’ political theater passing as the Senate impeachment trial of private citizen Donald Trump, saying he thinks the former president will be acquitted but Democrats may gain in the court of public opinion with their “focus group tested” strategy.

Rove said the trial will hurt Trump’s image and will have a “secondary impact” on the GOP if there is an acquittal, and that “any Republicans up for election in 2022 in a tough district or tough state is likely to see this material used against them. No ifs, ands, or buts.”

(Source: Fox News)

Fox News co-host Bill Hemmer used the reference to 2022 to segue to a Wall Street Journal op-ed Rove penned on Democrats jamming through big spending on COVID relief potentially hurting the party in the next mid-terms.

“I’m intrigued by the difference between the rhetoric, ‘We want bipartisanship, I want to work together,’ his inaugural address where he had this very — my whole soul is in this bringing the country together, and how they are approaching COVID relief,” Rove explained.

“Which is, we don’t care what the Republicans make in the way of suggestions. We’re not going to try to find any way to bring unity, we’re going to jam this thing down their throats just like we did with the stimulus bill and then we’re going to go out and boast to Politico reporters that this is going to a gigantic political advantage for us, a quote  ‘battering ram’ in 2022 against Republicans who are willing to quote ‘cut taxes’ for the wealthy but not help anybody during a pandemic,” he continued. “There’s a big problem between those two.”

Co-host Dana Perino pointed to polling that showed 83 percent of people approve of the Democrats’ relief measure to ask if the party has the politics right.

Responding with an emphatic “no,” Rove disputed that polling and pointed to an ABC poll showing the number was much lower to say the numbers are more evenly split.

“On February 11, 2009, Gallup found that 59% of the American people supported the $800 billion relief bill that Barack Obama and Joe Biden were pushing, and we know how that all turned out — the Republicans won 63 House seats and six Senate seats the following year. It was far more popular then than this package is now,” he said.

Hemmer interjected that ObamaCare was also a factor that year.

“We’ll have other big spending things coming up,” Rove replied. “Don’t think this is the last big spending bill.”

As for the trillions of dollars expected to be spent, Perino chimed in that Rove may need a bigger white board — a reference to the trademark prop he often uses.

“Or turn it sideways,” he shot back.

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Tom Tillison

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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.

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