House Majority Whip Tom Emmer kicked off a 56-district campaign swing in Lewiston, Maine, this week, rallying support for Republican House candidate Paul LePage ahead of November’s midterm elections.
During his stop, Emmer spoke with Fox News Digital about what he called an “anti-American” strain he sees growing within the Democratic Party, singling out Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.
“We’re not talking about socialists, these are communists, Marxists, and anarchists,” Emmer said of the rise of far-left candidates in Democratic ranks. “You got to be kidding. They want us to call them democratic socialists, there’s nothing democratic about these people.”
Emmer leveled sharper criticism directly at El-Sayed, accusing him of making inflammatory remarks.
“This guy says ridiculous things like U.S. NFL football is an example of toxic masculinity, he supports a terrorist who believes that America deserved to lose 3,000 people on 9-11, and he’s got this Piker guy who’s just shooting his mouth off on everything anti-American,” Emmer said. “These people are anti-American more than anything else. It’s time that we have great candidates like Paul LePage, which is why I’m here, who loves his state, loves this country and believes in the promise of America. We should be out there celebrating it and defending it not tearing it down, that’s why you vote for Paul.”
The Lewiston stop comes as Republicans head into the midterms six weeks from Election Day, with early voting already underway in several states. Historically, the party holding the White House loses congressional seats in midterm years, and the GOP is also contending with voter frustration over high prices at the pump and grocery store, an unpopular war involving Iran, and President Donald Trump’s approval ratings, which currently sit underwater in polling.
Democrats, for their part, are dealing with their own internal strain, including a rift between the party’s progressive wing and its establishment figures, along with image problems that have given Republicans material for attack ads. The GOP currently holds a financial advantage in midterm advertising spending.
Asked how Republicans should defend the administration’s economic record on the campaign trail, Emmer pointed to inflation under the previous administration.
“First off, remember, the Biden administration put this economy in the ditch, literally,” Emmer said. “Inflation we hadn’t seen in 40 years. Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and the Senate have been putting this economy back on track. We can talk about all the investment and everything else, but we have to be very sensitive to the fact that $4 gas, $6 diesel is unacceptable, but I would argue it still isn’t enough to vote for a communist.”
