Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters was at the center of an online firestorm on Friday, as he and the RNC ferociously defended an unearthed assessment he made about the challenges Republicans are facing in the 2026 midterm elections.
Gruters and the RNC angrily attacked outlets on Friday that reported on his comments, which included him saying, “We’re facing almost certain defeat.”
The audio was first reported by Andrew Egger in the Bulwark and was later picked up by other outlets like the Daily Beast. Gruters shared a clip of the remark and replied, “This is absolutely fake news. Democrats are desperate to find any reason to erode confidence in President Trump and Republicans’ agenda.” He added:
What’s true: The Party in power has only won the Midterms 3 times in the last 100 years.
What’s true: The American people trust the President.
What’s true: This country is better off with Republicans in charge.
What’s true: We will win in 2026.
The RNC also defended Gruters by posting, “How much does Harvard charge these day to learn how to report bullshit?” Their posted then included the text of his full remarks:
“Our mission is to win the midterms. You know it’s what’s interesting is the party in power always gets crushed in the midterms. It’s not a secret, there’s no sugarcoating it. It’s a pending looming disaster heading our way, and the question is how can we reverse that trend? Well, we reverse it by focusing on the President and his policies and all the good that he’s done. And if we do that, WE’LL WIN.”
“I LIKE OUR CHANCES IN THE MIDTERMS but let me put in perspective only three times in the last hundred years has the incumbent party been successful winning a midterm. We’re facing almost certain defeat. The only person who can bring the nose up and help us win is the President of the United States Donald J. Trump.”
“You hit the nail on the head. This is an absolute disaster you know no matter what party’s in power, they normally get crushed in the midterms so what do we have to do? Well the President started last night.”
When reached for comment by Mediaite, Gruters simply replied by sending a screenshot of the above tweet.
Notably, Egger’s report in the Bulwark did make clear that Gruters’s comments suggested the GOP could still pull off a miracle and keep its Congressional majorities. He wrote:
Gruters isn’t throwing Trump under the bus. Quite the opposite: As Democrats overperform in special election after special election and Republican confidence in the midterms craters, he’s trying to set expectations low—way low. After all, he says, the guys in power nearly always lose the midterms. And as once-unimaginable cracks have begun spiderwebbing across the MAGA coalition, he’s making a specific case to his party: “The only person that could bring the nose up and help us win is the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
Egger went on to defend his report, hitting back at a Towhall tweet, shared by Gruters, that read, ““The Bulwark” ran with a story claiming that RNC Chair @JoeGruters was expecting “certain defeat” in the midterms for Republicans. The story is FAKE. Trump’s detractors have to lie to feel good about themselves. GRUTERS: “I like our chances…”
Eggers replied, “This is getting amazing. Unlike my treatment of Gruters, which quoted him directly and included context, @townhallcom is plain lying about what I wrote. I didn’t say Gruters was *expecting* certain defeat. I transcribed the words he said: ‘We are facing almost certain defeat.’”
The RNC put out additional bombast on X:
In other posts, the RNC account called the Bulwark’s Sam Stein a “jackass” and the Daily Beast “fake news.” “You’re a massive LOSER & LIAR,” the account replied to left-leaning influencer Spencer Hakimian.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels also told Mediaite’s Sarah Rumpf, “The Bulwark is actively laundering DNC talking points and calling it news. They did not reach out for comment and instead manipulated a transcript to remove the line: ‘I like our chances in the midterms’ in order to orchestrate this sloppy hit piece against Chairman Gruters.”
Eggers commented on that allegation on social media as well, writing, “Interestingly, the RNC, after accusing me of telling “stupid, desperate lies” for transcribing remarks the RNC chair made in public and which the RNC uploaded to their own Soundcloud account, has now deleted each of those Soundcloud recordings (which I had linked to in the piece).”
The initial clip of Gruters had already gone viral online as he and the RNC began to attack, with several high-profile Democrats jumping on the remarks:
Sarah Rumpf contributed to this report.
