“Republicans are losing, so it makes sense to take high-risk moves. But I think a lot of conservatives have gamed out scenarios where a fight over Barrett helps them consolidate support and haven’t focused on similarly plausible scenarios where she causes the bottom to fall out… A big fight over the Supreme Court, focusing voters on risks to Roe and the ACA, hurts Trump with two constituencies — affluent suburbanites Trump purports to woo with his warnings about law and order, and more-secular northern non-college whites, key to his 2016 win” says NY Magazine columnist Josh Barrow on Twitter.
“Yeah, it’s pretty clear that Republicans are trying to bait Democrats into a fight over Barrett/Lagoa’s personal qualities, because a fight over Roe and the ACA being repealed likely ends badly for them. Are Democrats likely to take that bait? I mean… maybe. They are likely to feel very… impassioned. There’s sort of the blue-checkmark-crew-that-likes-to-post-videos-of-Trump-awkwardly-walking-down-the-staircase that might bite a bit. But it’s pretty obvious bait” Nate Silver replied.