Trump encourages Republicans to challenge new districts
President Donald Trump on Tuesday encouraged Republicans in Pennsylvania to challenge the way the state’s Supreme Court redrew congressional districts to more closely reflect the partisan composition of the state, saying the original districts drawn by Republicans were “correct.”
As part of a gerrymandering case, the court created a map that’s more compact and splits fewer counties and municipal areas than the Republican map, which has been used in the past three congressional elections. Analysts predict the new boundaries could allow Democrats to pick up several U.S. House seats.
“Hope Republicans in the Great State of Pennsylvania challenge the new ‘pushed’ Congressional Map, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary,” Trump said in a tweet Tuesday morning. “Your Original was correct! Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!”
The tweet was one of more than half a dozen the president sent Tuesday morning, most of which complained about the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Democrats and former President Barack Obama. Trump appeared to start his day, as he often does, by watching “Fox & Friends” and tweeting his responses. At one point, the three hosts of the conservative morning show — seated on a white couch behind a chyron reading: “Trump: Why didn’t Obama do something?” — featured some of Trump’s recent tweets and discussed why Obama didn’t do more to prevent Russian meddling in the election.
The president responded at 7:24 a.m. and thanked the morning show for their “great timeline on all of the failures the Obama Administration had against Russia.”
Later on, the president tweeted about the new congressional map in Pennsylvania, which “Fox & Friends” had also reported on that morning, noting that the new boundaries could benefit Democrats. The president then came back around to Russia and Obama, tweeting: “I have been much tougher on Russia than Obama, just look at the facts. Total Fake News!”