Washington Post-Schar Poll finds Gillespie as the “best Trump supporter” of three candidates running for Republican governor; Trump’s approval ratings at 36% in the Commonwealth...

“Gillespie is seen as the best Trump supporter of the three by 37 percent; Wagner is almost the same as Stewart, at 12 percent. Republican-leaning registered voters who “strongly approve” of Trump’s performance as president support Gillespie over Stewart by a wide 20-point margin, 35 to 15 percent.

“Being supportive of Trump may not be a good thing, though, in a general election in the only Southern state that Trump lost last November. The president’s approval rating among all Virginia residents is 36 percent, which is even lower than national approval rating of 42 percent in a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month.”

On the same day, news broke that Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and the ambassador, which can’t help with those incredibly low approval ratings...

“President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said that Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.”

Will Ed Gillespie make the same attempt to dodge this issue just like he did with Comey?

“As politicians across the region and country were reacting to President Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey, Ed Gillespie, the frontrunner in the Republican primary for Virginia governor, was non-committal on Wednesday.

“After twice declining to comment to reporters, saying he hadn’t had time to focus on the development that was dominating the news, Gillespie’s campaign put out a statement that noted ‘many questions and concerns’ had been raised by the Tuesday firing, but he needed more information to stake out a position.”

No matter what happens in the next 48 hours, Thursday night is surely shaping up to be an interesting evening at the RPV dinner featuring Sean Spicer….

“Spicer’s appearance comes at a particularly embattled stretch during his tenure. In the wake of the tumult that followed President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James B. Comey, Trump has spoken candidly with his advisers about a broad staff shake-up that includes members of his communications team.”