Some figures who have fallen out of grace with the Republican base sounded off with their advice for former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
“…if he’s watching this right now, his head is exploding and that’s part of the problem.”
(Video Credit: Fox News)
Proven by the success of his X conversation with Elon Musk, one of the most endearing qualities of the GOP leader has remained his authenticity. Trump’s willingness to speak his mind and chart his own path has also been a sticking point for Beltway insiders, prompting the likes of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and pollster Frank Luntz to sound off on strategy against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“It’s going to be a race, and you’ve got to make this race not on personalities,” the onetime Republican California congressman said on “America’s Newsroom” Monday.
Speaking with Fox News host Dana Perino and Mike Emanuel, McCarthy continued, “Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as attorney general on crime. Question what did she do when she was supposed to take care of the border as a czar. Question that they brought inflation. And she was the tie-breaking vote when it came to inflation; when it came to IRS agents.”
Having called out her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the “wrong pick when it came to VP,” the ousted speaker asserted, “This is a perfect person to run against. You thought John Kerry was a flip-flopper. She has the biggest flip-flop with the most extreme positions and you got a short time to do it. So don’t sit back. Get out there and start making the case. And use her own words to do it to her.”
Similarly, McCarthy suggested Trump need only win Pennsylvania and Georgia out of the battleground states to make it back into the White House. His onetime landlord Luntz spoke to how he measured the matchup of the rivals.
“If it’s about issues, Trump is much more likely to be successful. If it’s about attributes, Harris is much more likely to be successful because, quite frankly, people like her more than they like him,” he contended to CNN’s Jessica Dean. “It’s something that — if he’s watching this right now, his head is exploding and that’s part of the problem.”
“He has lost touch with the people that he needs and she is in perfect touch,” the pollster went on, speaking about how rallies had made the vice president appear. “The challenge is, what happens when she has a press conference? What happens when she faces people like you, asking questions like yours?”
I spoke with @JessicaDean on CNN about why Kamala Harris is surging and what Donald Trump can do to stop sinking in the 2024 race. pic.twitter.com/uUXnwfm2Xo
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 12, 2024
Contentious figures like McCarthy and Luntz weren’t alone in seeking to redirect Trump’s focus as his former trade adviser Peter Navarro weighed in on the “War Room” podcast, “He needs votes, and the current rally formula is simply not sufficiently focused on the very stark policy differences — policy differences — between him and Kamala Harris that will swing voters in key battleground states.”
Navarro made the case that for Harris “support among swing voters rises, particularly among women,” when Trump launches personal attacks. “It’s just a fact of life, right now.”
Ahead of the Democratic National Convention that will boost or blemish the vice president’s campaign, polling has remained mixed suggesting anything could tip the balance as some metrics had the president dominating in the battleground states while others showed Harris pulling ahead. Elsewhere, the recent betting average from RealClearPolitics showed the vice president favored over Trump 52.7 to 45.7 with less than three months remaining before Election Day.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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