Bill Clinton says GOP wins elections by finding something to ‘scare the living daylights’ out of swing voters

The former president says Democrats can still buck the normal trend of losing seats in midterms

Former president Bill Clinton said that Republicans perform well in midterm elections because they typically find a way to scare swing voters.

The former president appeared on Fareed Zakaria: GPS where the host asked him about whether Democrats could buck the normal trend where the president’s party loses control of at least one chamber of Congress in the midterm election.

“We could hold both these houses, but we have to say the right things, and we have to note, the Republicans always close well,” he said. “Why? Because they find some new way to scare the living daylights about something.”

Mr Clinton pointed to how Republicans advertised “critical race theory” being taught in schools, even though it was not, which helped deliver them win the governorship in Virginia a year after President Joe Biden won the commonwealth by double digits.

“That’s what they did in 2021, when they made critical race theory sound worse than smallpox and it wasn’t being taught in any public schools in America,” he said. “But they didn’t care, they just scare people.”

Governor Glenn Youngkin beat Mr Clinton’s longtime friend and former governor Terry McAuliffe.

“And in the end, the breakpoint in American politics is not much different than it was in the 90s,” he said. “That is, you still have to get those people. It’s just that there are so many fewer because the parties have gone more ideologically, and clearer, and psychically intolerant.”

Mr Clinton said that it led to pulling more people toward the extremes.

“But there’s still some people hanging on there who are really trying to think and trying to understand what’s going on,” he said.

Multiple polls show that Democrats have either improved on the generic ballot or are now leading Republicans since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson decision that overturned Roe v Wade.