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As the mid-term elections loom, momentum is moving in the direction of the Republicans, with a strong showing likely to pave the way for a 2024 sweep of the House, the Senate and the Presidency, a former US diplomat has told Express.co.uk. However, Gordon Sondland has warned the party not to gloat if they are successful on November 8 – because it will simply serve to “galvanise” the Democrats.
Speaking via video link from New York, he told Express.co.uk: “These elections, when they’re this close in so many different venues, are really a function of momentum.
“The polls go up and down, you know, for the past two or three months, someone is way ahead and then all of a sudden the races tighten.
“And it’s sort of like watching a horse race as the horses come around to the last turn and that’s what’s going on right now.”
The 65-year-old, whose memoir The Envoy: Mastering the Art of Diplomacy with Trump and the World, is published by Bombardier Books next month, added: “I think the momentum is definitely on the Republican side, in all of these very close races.
“There are many safe Democratic seats where the numbers have gone up and down and, at the end of the day, those Democrats are going to win but I think there are a lot of seats that are up in the air.
“The pollsters are calling them toss-ups, but I think they’re gonna go red.”
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Mr Sondland was fired by Mr Trump after giving evidence at his impeachment hearing into claims he tried to pressure Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation into the business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, the man who beat him two years ago.
He explained: “Sadly, I think that he is going to take credit for these victories, when in fact I don’t believe he deserves credit for them.
“I want to be very clear on where I stand vis a vis Donald Trump.
“When I testified in the impeachment I did not do so to testify for him or against him, I didn’t want to testify, I wanted to just get out of there and go back to Brussels and do my job.
“But I had a subpoena and I had to testify. I was supportive of Donald Trump, I am very supportive of his policies and continue to be supportive of his policies, and a lot of those policies I think are what is moving the party forward.
“I was willing to take Trump as a package, the good, the bad and the ugly.
“And I didn’t think that anything that he had done, while it may have amounted to a change in power, in other words, where the voters could say at the ballot box, ‘we don’t like what he did, we’re going to change horses at the next election’, I didn’t view anything that he did as meriting the impeachment hearing that occurred, the first one.”
However, referring to the insurrection which saw Trump supporters attempt to storm the Capitol building to stop the certification of the 2020 election result, Mr Sondland added: “Once January 6 occurred and he didn’t peacefully turn over power to now-President Biden, I view that as my red line, so I can’t support him going forward.
“Although I can very much support his policies being carried out by one of the other five or six or seven very qualified candidates on the Republican side and I have not made a decision yet on that.”
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