Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder said Friday he would give President Donald Trump a ‘B’ grade after a little more than a year and half in office.
After speaking at a Kansas City, Kan. Chamber of Commerce luncheon Friday, a reporter asked Yoder how he would grade Trump’s performance in office so far.
“I’d probably give him a ‘B,'” Yoder told a group of reporters shortly after the chamber event.
“When the president is talking about the economy, when he’s talking about national security, when he’s focused on reforming government, I think he has the support of the majority of the American people,” Yoder said.
“His style, his Tweets – I don’t agree with that. I’ve spoken out against many of them. I think that is probably not allowing him to get the credit. The country should be really focused on how good the economy is going right now and how good things are.”
No mention was made of Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian collusion in the 2016 election although Yoder said he was the only Republican member of the Appropriations Committee to join Democrats in prohibiting funding to stop the investigation.
Yoder’s appearance at the Kansas City, Kan. chamber event was anticipated to be a debate with Democratic challenger Sharice Davids.
The challenger did not make the event because of a scheduling conflict and there was no clear indication if she would appear before the group before the general election.
Davids said on Thursday she accepted a debate organized by the Kansas City Star. On Friday, Davids said the date would be Oct. 29, a week before the election.
“I look forward to discussing Congressman Yoder’s long history of accepting millions of dollars from special interests and then voting to protect those donors, while making middle class Kansans pay more for taxes and health insurance,” Davids said in a statement.
Yoder’s campaign did not commit to that debate and has said it had concerns about the newspaper holding a debate for a candidate it had endorsed in the primary.
Yoder said Friday that he would “look at it,” but wasn’t committing. He wanted to know why Davids wouldn’t participate in other debates, including one in each county in the 3rd Congressional District.
The congressman, meanwhile, went ahead with the chamber forum which was moderated by newscaster John Holt, who asked Yoder various policy questions confronting Congress.
Holt asked Yoder whether he embraced Trump after the president endorsed him and praised his work for securing money for a border wall on Twitter in July. Yoder didn’t run away from the president, who barely lost the district to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“My position has always been is that I will always work with the president of the United States to get things done on behalf of my constituents whether it’s President Obama or whether it could have been President Clinton or whether it’s President Trump,” Yoder said.
“My job is to represent my constituents and represent their views to the federal government,” Yoder said.
Holt pressed Yoder a little harder, asking the congressman if he would greet the president if he arrived in Kansas City to campaign on his behalf.
“I have been, I have been,” Yoder said, adding that he accompanied the president to Kansas City on Air Force One when Trump spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Convention.
“I think it’s frankly inappropriate for folks to run for office on the left saying they’re going to do everything they can to disrupt the president, disrupt the government, to not stand up for people but to stand against something. I am standing up for things, for people. That’s the difference in this election.”
