RNC chairwoman says Republicans who distance themselves from Trump are 'hurting themselves in the long run'

• Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, warned on Sunday against Republicans attempting to distance themselves from President Donald Trump.
• "Any Republican that doesn't recognize that running with the president is going to help them is hurting themselves in the long run," she said during an appearance on ABC News' "This Week."
• Her comments came after Trump lashed out at Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican, for leaked audio from a constituent town hall where he criticized the president.

Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, on Sunday warned Republicans against distancing themselves from President Donald Trump as the election nears closer.

McDaniel made the comments after George Stephanopoulos, moderator of ABC's "This Week" asked whether she'd seen Republican senators attempt to distance themselves from the president.

"I'm not," McDaniel said. "I think all of them have been running those similar races all along."

"We are seeing this huge energy, and we are seeing really great numbers coming out for the president, and this is a race," she added. "And any Republican that doesn't recognize that running with the president is going to help them is hurting themselves in the long run."

On Saturday, President Trump lashed out against Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican, after audio of a constituent town hall where Sasse criticized Trump was published by The Washington Examiner.

"I'm now looking at the possibility of a Republican blood bath in the Senate, and that's why I've never been on the Trump train," Sasse reportedly said during the town hall. "It's why I didn't agree to be on his re-election committee, and it's why I'm not campaigning for him...I've spent lots of the, of the last year on a campaign bus, and when you listen to Nebraskans, they don't really want more rage tweeting as a new form of entertainment."

—This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 18, 2020

When Stephanopoulos asked if McDaniel was concerned that Trump seemed to be engaged in "open warfare with his own senators," she dismissed the concerns.

"I think this president is fighting for the American people every day," she said. "I'm not worried about Washington beltway politics."

As The Associated Press reported earlier in October, a number of Republicans have reportedly grown concerned about Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and have attempted to create distance between themselves and the president as he enters the final stages of his re-election campaign. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate and are at risk of losing it next month.

"He refused to treat it seriously," Sasse said during the call of Trump's response to the virus that has infected more than 8 million people in the US, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. "For months, he treated it like a news-cycle-by-news-cycle P.R. crisis."