Scarborough says Iowa victory ‘bad news’ for Trump

MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough warned Tuesday that former President Trump’s win in Iowa could mean “bad news” for his chances in a general election.

“The fact that Donald Trump has 50 percent of Republicans not voting for him, and as Steve Kornacki said, one-third hating him in the state of Iowa, in the state of Iowa … I gotta say for people who actually want to win general elections, that’s not good news,” Scarborough said.

Scarborough compared Trump to former President Obama on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, when he explained the GOP front-runner’s victory in Iowa does not signal strength for the GOP party. He argued that if Obama took four years off and ran in Iowa’s Democratic caucuses, he would have had more than 90 percent of the vote, compared with Trump’s approximately 50 percent.

“Fifty percent of people voting in the Iowa caucuses against a former president is bad news for that party’s prospects in the general election. Not good news. And again, just again, let’s sit ask what Barack Obama would have gotten if he had done the same thing. It would have been in the high 90s,” Scarborough added.

Scarborough is not the only one sounding the alarm bells on Trump’s Monday night win in Iowa, where he secured 51 percent of the vote in the caucuses. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said his win demonstrated Trump’s “weakness” in an MSNBC interview Monday night.

“I think that is telling. It tells you the weakness of Donald Trump and also the opportunity for Democrats because in the end, look, if the base doesn’t turn out for Donald Trump in the general election enthusiastically and Democrats turn out its base, this is all about, you know, independents, and independents don’t like Donald Trump,” Pritzker said.

Despite the negative outlook, Trump still maintains a comfortable lead in national GOP primary polls. According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Trump is leading his closest GOP rivals by nearly 53 percentage points. In a head-to-head match-up up with President Biden, his likely opponent, Trump has a narrow lead of 1.3 percentage points, also according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ.