Conservative CNN Panelist Admits Voters Have ‘Good Reason’ Not to ‘Trust Republicans With the Economy’

American Principles Project (APP) president Terry Schilling declared on CNN that voters have “good reason” not to trust Republicans when it comes to the economy.

Schilling joined a CNN panel on Wednesday, along with Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright, to break down the midterms, and he argued the midterms would look very different for Republicans without the ongoing and “unpopular” Iran war and elevated gas prices.

He said:

I think that if we didn’t have $5 a gallon gas, and I think if we didn’t have the unpopular Iraq war going on, I think the midterm elections would be a lot different. Obviously, gas prices impact the cost of living everywhere. But what I will say is at APP, we just released a memo and released it to all the candidates and to the public and what we found is that voters essentially trust Republicans when it comes to the culture, when it comes to protecting children, getting boys out of girls sports, all of that, but they don’t trust Republicans with the economy and for good reason. They’re not articulating what they’re going to do. What’s the next step?

CNN’s Audie Cornish noted, however, that “culture” issues are not as high-priority for voters as the economy.

Schilling agreed but noted such questions are “tricky” because individual candidates can have “culture” or social positions that get voters more motivated to hone in on those issues. He named Texas Senate Democratic candidate James Talarico as an example, which Seawright pushed back on, noting the millions Republicans are pumping into Talarico’s race against Republican Ken Paxton.

“I will say you guys would have a much different race in Texas if the Democrats weren’t that crazy on the culture,” Schilling said.

“Well, Terry, you can say that, but there’s a reason why Republicans are spending $60 million in that race. So the race cannot be as comfortable as you think for Republicans,” Seawright said. “But it’s not just this war of choice that Donald Trump got us in that’s got people pissed off and frustrated. It’s the price of health care. It’s the price of groceries. It’s their everyday living.”

Watch above via CNN.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

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