'This one got away from American Airlines:' Why so many fliers are angry, plus what this primary taught us about the midterms

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Odyssey newsrooms across the country. I'm Christy Strawser, Odyssey's managing editor of news. Half a dozen states held their primary elections this week, which gives us a clearer picture of how some of the nation's high-profile midterms races will shape up this fall. So what do the tea leaves now tell us about control of the US Senate and House of Representatives? Fundamentally, voters care about one thing, the economy.
Here's more from KCBS in the Bay Area.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:32)
American voters remain worried about their budgets and the economy. The Economist says a majority of voters think things are getting worse. To tell us what this means for President Trump and Republicans in the midterm elections, ABC News political analyst Steve Roberts, are we seeing a Trump effect in the primaries so far?

**Steve Roberts** (0:52)
Yes, we are, Steve, but it's a contradictory effect. You know, within the world of primary Republican primary voters, Donald Trump remains enormously popular. Look what he's able to do. He engineered the defeat in Republican primaries of two popular sitting Republican senators, Senator Cassidy of Louisiana, Senator Cornyn of Texas, because he felt they weren't loyal enough to him, not to the Republican Party, but to him personally. That's an enormously effective show of political power. But if you get outside that universe, that narrow universe of Republican primary voters, there's much growing unhappiness. People who are no longer subject to Trump's political influence and political leverage. Look at this proposal that Trump pushed through recently where he would create a $1.8 billion slush fund to reward and pay off some of his supporters, including some who were convicted of criminal activity at the Capitol. Plus, another provision that would shield his family from up to $100 million in potential penalties for tax audits in the future. Well, you get a Republican Mitch McConnell. Now, he's the former Republican leader of the Senate, but he's not running again. He doesn't have to worry about a primary. He called this utterly stupid and morally wrong.
Mike Pence, who Trump's former vice president, has broken with the president in the past, called it over the weekend on TV, deeply offensive. So you have crosscurrents, Steve. You have the hardcore Trump supporters still loyal.
But beyond that, there's much more growing dissatisfaction and that this deal that Trump engineered with the IRS and the Justice Department symbolizes this growing discontent.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:44)
Yeah, more Republicans seem to be speaking out against the president for this particular proposal than I can certainly remember. Was there perhaps a red line that was crossed here where even Republicans are saying, all right, enough's enough?

**Steve Roberts** (3:01)
Yes, for some. Look, again, a lot of Republicans are still afraid of Donald Trump. He showed his power by defeat. And Senator John Cornyn, Texas was a four term Republican Senator, highly popular with his colleagues in the Senate, a prodigious fundraiser who had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for his colleagues.
Trump came out against him. He lost his primary by 25 points. So it's not as if Trump has lost the power to influence Republican primary voters. But the primary voters are not going to influence Herman's control of the Senate and control of the House in the fall. And Donald Trump's not going to be on the ballot again. But these other Republicans will be on the ballot.
And they're worried that this Trump's actions are going to drag them down. And I think in many ways, you can sum up the political problem Republicans are facing by one sentence, Steve. And that is, that's not what I voted for.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:08)
Some Republicans have openly said they worry the fallout could actually swing the midterm elections out of their favor. I mean, you read the tea leaves in Washington. I know it's still early. We're nowhere near the November election yet. But is there a possibility of a change in the balance of power in Congress?

**Steve Roberts** (4:28)
Well, absolutely. Look, let's also remember that history is against the Republicans.
Twenty of the last 22 midterm elections, the president's party has lost power and lost seats in the Congress. That's not an accident. That's not a random number.
It's part of the essential cycle of American politics. First of all, any magnetic and effective presidential candidate pulls in voters who don't then vote two years later. I covered Ronald Reagan. I covered Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California when I was the New York Times correspondent in Los Angeles. And I covered him when he was president. And he was enormously popular. But in 1982, after his huge victory in 1980, Republicans lost 26 seats in the House of Representatives because a lot of people who voted for Ronald Reagan didn't vote two years later. Well, Trump faces the same problem. But in addition, every president, successful candidate, makes promises they don't keep. It's built into the system. Donald Trump said, I'm going to end foreign wars and he started one. He said, I'm going to reduce prices and they've gone up. So the two basic reasons why the president's party almost always loses seats are very visible in terms of Trump. But in addition to that, Trump seems to have turned his attention away from concerns that ordinary voters in San Francisco and everywhere else have.