Donald Trump has been warned his numbers in South Carolina are “disastrous” after 40 percent of voters chose to vote against him.
The former president defeated Nikki Haley 60 points to 40 in the Republican primary on Saturday, handing the former South Carolina governor a humiliating defeat in her home state.
Trump has won all the contests so far, winning Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and could be crowned as early as March 12 if the results continue to go his way.
But according to surveys, one in five Republican primary voters now say they won’t vote for him in November, enough to hand the race to Joe Biden, who won the Democratic primary hands down on Saturday.
“These numbers are disastrous for Donald Trump,” Lawrence O’Donnell said on MSNBC as the results came in.
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell warned that the numbers behind Trump’s triumph in South Carolina don’t give him a path to the White House
The former president did not mention Nikki Haley by name in his victory speech in South Carolina as he looked ahead to the general election in November.
Haley insisted she would stay in the race with more than 700 delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday on March 5, when 15 states and one territory will cast their votes
“It’s the reason I mentioned the big forgotten number from South Carolina, which is Joe Biden getting 96%, OK?
“That’s what you should get, OK, and Donald Trump won’t come close to that.”
‘He leaves it on the table, which belongs to another candidate. All you need, all you need, is 5% of the 30%. We’re talking about a splinter.’
The former president said he had “never seen the Republican Party as united as it is today” as he held a victory rally in a hotel ballroom in Colombia on Saturday evening.
“I wish we could do it faster.”
It’s been more than fifty years since a Republican presidential candidate captured the Republican nomination without winning his home state.
But Haley insisted she was taking the long view, telling her supporters: “I know 40% isn’t 50%, but I also know 40% isn’t a small group.
“There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who say they want an alternative.”
Sixty percent of South Carolina primary voters identify as white evangelical or born-again Christians, and Trump won three-quarters of their votes.
The average age of voters was older than in previous elections in the state, and three-quarters of voters without a college degree voted for Trump.
But one Bloomberg poll Late last month, it emerged that a majority of voters in key swing states would not vote for the ex-president if he were convicted of any of the 90 crimes he faces during his final term in office.
O’Donnell’s fellow panelists agreed that the numbers looked bad as the results came in, with Rachel Maddow calling it “not a good look,” and Stephanie Ruhle declaring Biden the “winner of the night.”
But the liberal media has a long history of underestimating the size of Trump’s support, and his campaign warned it risked the same kind of complacency seen before Hillary Clinton lost to him in 2016.
“This will be a referendum against Joe Biden and his policies,” a Trump adviser told Mediaite.
“As long as Trump can capitalize on voters’ disillusionment with the economy, out-of-control immigration and more foreign entanglements, these are issues that affect people of all backgrounds.”
Trump now has 110 delegates to take to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15, where the winner will be formally declared.
MSNBC’s election night Liberal panel agreed with O’Donnell’s analysis
His only remaining rival has 20 of the 1,215 needed to secure the nomination, but more than 700 are up for grabs on “Super Tuesday” March 5, when 15 states and one territory will cast their votes.
However, Trump is already looking forward to November, when he insists he will win back the White House he lost in 2020.
“For hardworking Americans, November 5 will be our new Liberation Day,” he said yesterday in a speech at the conservative CPAC conference.
“But for the liars and deceivers and fraudsters and censors and deceivers who have commandeered our government, it will be the Day of Judgment.”