“I didn’t play, I just hit balls for an hour,” President Donald Trump told reporters after casting his ballot early in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Oct. 24.
Trump was on the golf course before casting his vote in West Palm Beach, where his Mar-a-Lago beach club is located. He was accompanied at the polling place by First Lady Melania Trump.
In Florida, 22% of voters have cast early ballots in the midterms, according to NBC News. Most of the votes have been cast for Republicans as of Wednesday.
As for why he opted to skip a full game, the president said he’s been too busy but that he hit balls with a “couple of professionals.” He’s been out campaigning for Republican candidates running in midterm elections.
Trump noted that the president’s party usually loses seats in the midterms, so the pressure is on for the GOP to retain its majorities in the House and Senate during the elections next month. Polling aggregates from a variety of sources show that Democrats appear to have a slight lead – though there could be surprises on election day.
Trump also addressed a few questions from reporters after casting his ballot of all Republican candidates, per C-SPAN. One of those questions was about a polling company called Wedgewood that admitted to publishing fake polls.
He also discussed potentially issuing pardons for his staff if Democrats win: “I haven’t thought about it, but certainly I’d be allowed to,” said Trump.
He then addressed a confusing candidate going by the same name as the GOP contender in Alaska’s Senate race, the war in Iran, Melania’s help to broker a ceasefire arrangement with Russia and Ukraine, controversy over Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy ran an ad featuring Democratic candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother. Acton’s stepfather was allegedly indicted for raping her when she was 12, and her mother reportedly stayed with him after. Acton has said she was removed from their care. Polling cited by Axios indicates the ad has backfired on Ramaswamy.
Despite the fact that even members of the GOP denounced the ad, Trump doubled down and said that people should believe Acton’s mother. He also continued a recent trend of criticizing the media, telling a Wall Street Journal reporter: “You guys are worse than anybody, there’s massive corruption that you don’t cover on the Democrats’ side.”
