WSJ’s Kim Strassel Slams Trump and Thiel For Abandoning GOP Candidates: ‘The Lucys Have Pulled the Football’

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel slammed former President Donald Trump and venture capitalist Peter Thiel for abandoning the GOP Senate nominees in Arizona and Ohio.

Reportedly, Thiel has stopped funding the campaigns of Arizona GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters and Ohio GOP Senate nominee J.D. Vance as both candidates have shown vulnerabilities in polling.

On Thursday, Strassel blasted Thiel and Trump for abandoning Masters and Vance, both of whom have worked for Thiel:

Only where’s the would-be kingmaker now? Sitting in his counting house, the doors firmly locked. Mr. Thiel has abandoned the Arizona race, as well as the Ohio Senate candidate he spent $15 million to nominate, J.D. Vance. Mr. Trump is meanwhile using this cycle to hoover up grassroots donations that might otherwise go to competitive midterm candidates and so far refuses to commit any of the estimated $99 million in a leadership PAC to his endorsees. The Lucys have pulled the football, leaving the GOP’s Arizona project to fall on its back.

Criticism is landing on Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund, which recently announced it was canceling $8 million in Arizona ad reservations. But spare a thought for the outfit that has been left holding the Thiel-Trump bag. Resources aren’t infinite, and Mr. McConnell’s super PAC suddenly finds itself having to shovel unexpected millions into defending an Ohio seat that ought to be a breeze but in which (Thiel-less) Mr. Vance is struggling. It’s also defending seats in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. One Nation (affiliated with the Senate Leadership Fund) spent some $13 million in Arizona through Labor Day, and the fund will be playing on television again in October.

Strassel’s column focused more on Masters than Vance. She criticized Masters’ campaign for having “a lack of focus and discipline.”