James Blair, the deputy White House chief of staff who’s taken a leave of absence to lead President Donald Trump’s midterm political operation, made a stunning prediction on CNN Wednesday afternoon.

After making note of Democrats’ successful effort to push through a mid-decade redistricting plan to do away with all but one Republican congressional district in Virginia, anchor Dana Bash kicked off her interview of Blair by asking: “What is your diagnosis for why you and Republicans failed to push back the Democrats’ redistricting plan?”

“Well, first, I would reframe that in Virginia. So this is a state in November of 2025 that went by 15 points to the Democrats for governor and about eight points for attorney general. Last night, this was a three-point race. That’s actually a three-point overperformance of the Trump 2024 historic performance in Virginia. So just as a baseline for all the Democrats crowing this morning. If Republicans perform anywhere near on average the way they did in Virginia last night, we not only add seats to the Senate, but we add seats to the House, and we have a historic midterm,” replied Blair. “It was very close last night. There’s a backlash to the fact that they were not honest, and the same is going to be true in November. They don’t have policies to run on, they don’t have a vision to run. We’re going to make them litigate the question of their policies in November. And again, if it turns out the way it did last night, Democrats are not going to win the majority in either chamber.”

“But it is a win. I mean, if just-, if you use that sort of paradigm and look ahead to November, if Republicans almost keep control of the House, it’s still a loss,” shot back Bash.

“Yeah, what I expect is that when all of this redistricting sort of continues this cycle is that there will be a narrow advantage for Republicans. I think that’s the reality,” argued Blair. “And what’s really important is Democrats started this like years ago, and they do it through the courts. They take a different tactic, but they’ve gone through, and badgered, and jury-shopped. I mean, in Utah last week, NBC reported that there may have been an improper relationship between the League of Women Voters plaintiff lawyer and the judge that ruled on the maps for the League of Women Voters.”

Watch above via CNN

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