Media, Dems struggle to cope with Donald Trump's landslide Iowa caucuses victory

Democrats and the media are downplaying the significance of Donald Trump's Iowa caucuses victory to cope with his political resurgence.

Trump's historic landslide victory was unorthodox. He did not participate in any of the Republican debates held before the caucuses, and he publicly sparred with some of Iowa's biggest political influences, including Gov. Kim Reynolds (R). But that didn't matter. By winning more than 50% of support from caucus-goers — and nearly all of Iowa's 99 counties — Trump recorded the biggest margin of victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses.

But Trump's opponents quickly tried to minimize the feat.

"Almost half of the base of the Republican Party showing up for this caucus tonight voted against Donald Trump," said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on MSNBC.

"Think about that. This is the most famous Republican. He's the guy who, you know, basically built the modern Republican Party ... that the Democrats are running against, and half the people in that party didn’t vote for Donald Trump. So, I think that is telling. It tells you the weakness of Donald Trump, and also the opportunity for Democrats," he continued.

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough made a similar argument on "Morning Joe" the morning after the caucuses.

According to Scarborough, it is "bad news" for Republicans that Trump earned only 51% of caucus-goer's support.

"I want to look at this another way: If Barack Obama took four years off and then ran in a Democratic caucus in Iowa, would 50% of Democrats vote against Barack Obama? No. No, they wouldn't," Scarborough said, later adding, "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."

This argument, however, is downright silly.

Their argument suggests that because half of Iowa Republicans chose not to support Trump in their caucuses, those voters will support President Joe Biden in the general election. But there is no evidence to support this conclusion.

Few, if any, Republican voters who oppose Trump will cast their vote for Biden. The majority of anti-Trump Republicans, instead, are likely to vote third-party, write in a candidate, or vote against Biden — by voting for Trump.

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