Privately, the overwhelming majority of [Republican politicians] are Trump skeptics — if not a step further than that, publicly though, they pick and choose their battles. I think what we've seen in the party is that you can be critical of Trump on policy.

Doug Heye

For House Democrats ' running for president, breaking through on healthcare or the economy just got a lot tougher, impeachment will be the dominant topic for a long time.

The challenge is that inconsistent messaging on the economy projects weakness, and if we know one thing about Donald Trump, it is his aversion to any perceived weakness, there is still a lot of good news this White House can emphasize about the economy. Focus on that.

I think 12 is significant, i don't think it's a watershed moment. by Doug Heye

I think 12 is significant, i don't think it's a watershed moment.

If this were a different issue, it would have been higher, but it... by Doug Heye

If this were a different issue, it would have been higher, but it's about the wall.

There is a potential Todd Akin, Richard Murdoch problem, one candidate could say the wrong thing that not only plays a big role in that race, but then becomes a question that every New York candidate was asked in their race as well.

It picks at what's been a very, very bad scab for Republicans for a long time, i think the party if they nominate him will be committing an abortion on itself.

As the guy who is positioning himself as the smartest guy in poli... by Doug Heye

As the guy who is positioning himself as the smartest guy in politics, he sure plays dumb a lot.

Because of Trump’s perversion of conservatism, along with the devastating impact Donald Trump would have if nominated, I can not support Donald Trump were Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination.

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There are going to be newspapers throughout the world that are going to read 'Republican frontrunner doesn't want Muslims to visit America, it will make it easier for Democrats to portray the GOP as hostile to any minority. Ultimately, I think Donald Trump is the best asset Hillary Clinton has.

Everything about Donald Trump's campaign has hurt the Party, it hurts the party on a presidential level. It certainly hurts the party on a Senate level as well.

Because Jeb has the experience and knowledge to protect your family. there are going to be newspapers throughout the world that are going to read 'Republican frontrunner doesn't want Muslims to visit America.

Republicans are coming to a fork in the road -- and the question is -- whether or not they will take it, there are a lot of people who wanted to fight -- all we could do is fight Obama, fight the Democrats nonstop. Or do we have a strategy of not just throwing punches but landing punches?

Right now they're like, 'Oh, hey, Iowa could be interesting,' partly because Walker has imploded, certainly there's a little bit of a vacuum but there's not a massive one.

If Donald Trump is allowed tomorrow night to have the conversation that he wants to have, talk about whatever Trump wants to talk about without really being challenged, then he wins the debate.

There will be some. What that size is we don't know — it's clearly not 51% of the party right now.

If we cast these things as all about Trump, then they defy Trump.

Newhouse and Valadao, what did they run on? They were running on their district, on specific issues in their district. Valadao is talking about agriculture all day, every day.

Talking and acting tough on Russia and foreign policy crises have been terra firma for Republicans for generations.

Regardless of whether or not he wins... it looks like Republican Glenn Youngkin is showing Republicans that they don't need to be wedded to Donald Trump, sure, they don't want to cross him and alienate his base. But, especially with Biden's low numbers and McAuliffe's vulnerabilities on things like education, Republicans can play on Democrats' field. That's the first step in putting Trump in the rearview mirror.

There will have to be a very long explanation on what Republicans hope to achieve now as well as in the coming years.