title:  Republicans Running Scared As Trump Threatens Those Who Dump Him With Political Doom
text: Republicans are caught between a rock and a hard place and Democrats are poised to take advantage of the chaos.The avalanche that buried the Republican Party on Friday is causing mass panic among GOP candidates up and down the 2016 ballot.Trump s vulgar remarks about groping women has resulted in many Republicans withdrawing their support of his presidential campaign. But whether they stick with him or turn their backs on him, it s a double-edged sword that is making Republicans bleed out with under a month to go before Election Day.The Republican nominee has been a toxic force ever since he threw his hat into the ring over a year ago, and while that has hurt Republicans among independent and moderate Republican voters in addition to the many groups Trump has insulted, Republicans who are just now running away from Trump have angered the conservative base that somehow still supports him.And the political consequences could cut deep if Trump has his way. Even if he loses in November, Trump could still bring many Republicans down with him, especially after this threat he posted on Twitter.So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers   and elections   go down!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2016Just in case you re confused, that s Trump attacking the Republicans who have denounced him since Friday s bombshell, and there is no doubt that Trump s supporters are going to remember who betrayed them when it s time to vote.Trump even escalated the threat by instructing his team to launch the attack.According to the New York Times,In a set of talking points sent to his supporters Sunday morning, Mr. Trump s campaign urged them to attack turncoat Republicans as  more concerned with their political future than they are about the country. As we all know, Trump s team has received a lot of television time this year, which means any Republican who has distanced themselves from Trump is about to get a whole lot of negative press.And that s really bad news for Republicans, because as the Times further reports,  much of the party appeared to be in a state of paralysis, uncertain of how to achieve political distance from Mr. Trump without enraging millions of voters who remained loyal to his campaign. Specifically, Republicans now fear losing both houses of Congress, which would be a historic political victory for Democrats at a time when gerrymadering basically guaranteed that the GOP would at least hold onto power over the House of Representatives.Steven Law, a longtime lieutenant of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said the party had descended into chaos. The Republican Party is caught in a theater fire; people are just running to different exits as fast as they can,  said Mr. Law, who now heads the  super PAC  American Crossroads.One member of the House Republican leadership, conceding its majority was now in jeopardy, compared the situation to the 2006 scandal involving a Florida congressman s inappropriate conduct with congressional pages. If that scandal was a house fire, this lawmaker said, Mr. Trump had brought on the political equivalent of a nuclear attack.Democrats see this as a major opportunity to seek wins in Republican leaning states such as Indiana and Georgia, and even wins in red states like Arizona. If successful, we could be seeing a reversal of the 2010 midterm election that swept Republicans into office.Should it come to pass that Republicans lose across the board on November 8th, we could be finally seeing the last gasp of Republican reliance upon it s conservative base, which means Republicans will have to move towards the center if they want to be politically relevant again.Featured Image: Win McNamee/Getty Images