State polls, Ukraine: Double blow for Trump
KEY REVERSALS Republicans lose Kentucky governor race, Virginia legislature
WASHINGTON: US Republicans lost a key gubernatorial race and conceded control over a legislature in the state elections that were seen as the first test for American President Donald Trump, who faces mounting troubles stemming from an impeachment inquiry.
To add to the bad news, a key witness in the inquiry reversed his stance, telling congressional investigators that he had told Ukrainians they had to give Trump what he wanted - a public announcement of investigation of corruption into his potential Democratic rival Joe Bidento unblock almost $400 million in military aid lined up.
Matt Bevan, the governor of the deeply Republican state of Kentucky, lost to Democratic challenger Andy Beshear in an upset defeat largely due to his own unpopularity.
Trump had thrown his full weight behind him and held an election eve rally for him on Monday.
Republicans also conceded the assembly and senate in Virginia for the first time in a quarter century, with Democrats now in charge of all the major state-wide offices, in a state that was once considered Republican but has turned into a swing state with a sharp rise in Democratic voters.
These reverses for the Republican Party came a year after it lost control of the US House of Representatives to Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.
Republicans are seen to be losing support in cities and in the suburbs largely on account of the divisive brand of politics popularised by Trump.
There has been no reaction from Trump so far. His 2020 campaign claimed credit for the president for the other victories in Kentucky and said about Bevan, the “president just about dragged Matt Bevin across the finish line, helping him run stronger than expected in what turned into a very close race at the end”.
Earlier in the day, a Trumployalist handed the US president a fresh set of troubles. US ambassador t o EU Gordon Sondland told impeachment investigators in a “supplemental declaration”, adding to an earlier closed-door testimony, that he had indeed conveyed to a Ukrainian official that there were conditions that had to be met to get the aid - in effect, a quid pro quo that Trump and his allies have denied.
“I said that resumption of the US aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland said.
Sondland, a wealth hotelier from Oregon, did not however connect the quid pro quo to Trump - and the White House pointed it out in a reaction.