President Donald Trump’s advisers reportedly tried to “steer” him away from giving a primetime address on “election fraud” last week as some Republican operatives are questioning his approach in the run-up to the midterm elections.
Trump boasted that his Thursday night address, where he accused China of meddling in the 2020 election to ensure his defeat to former President Joe Biden, received “great reviews,” but many in the party are reluctant to relive the president’s gripes, they told The Washington Post.
“Advisers initially steered him away from the idea for a prime-time address, but it was quickly resurrected,” the newspaper reports, and noted that Trump initially wanted to give the speech in late June. “Advisers managed to put it off.”
Instead of a primetime address, another suggestion was for the newly returned White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to present the findings to reporters at a press briefing.
The president “ultimately got his way,” the Post reports, but some GOP operatives say voters don’t want to hear about Trump’s 2020 grievances.
“It’s a stupid, stupid move,” one unnamed GOP pollster, who has worked on several campaigns, told Axios last week, while a White House official told Politico the speech was “as on the rails as possible.”
“The senior team just talked and prepped him. I think they explained the way to be taken seriously is not to be crazy,” the person said. “There was going to be a lot of crazier s*** said.”
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
Republican strategists want the president to talk about what voters care about most — the economy and affordability, they told the Post.
“If candidates are not talking about the economy, if candidates are not talking about affordability, if they’re not talking about how they’re going to make people’s lives at home cheaper and less expensive, then they’re not talking about the issues that voters care about,” Paul Shumaker, who did not comment directly on Trump’s speech, told the newspaper.
Republican public affairs strategist Matthew Bartlett, who served at the State Department during Trump’s first administration, said the speech was a “mess.”
The speech was part of the president’s attempts to pressure Republicans into passing the SAVE Act, requiring citizens to provide paperwork such as passports and birth certificates to vote in elections. The bill currently lacks the support it needs to clear the Senate.
Much of the newly declassified material Trump announced in his speech reinterprets previously disclosed information that was already known to intelligence officials, including during his first administration.
Bartlett said this undercut Trump’s efforts to pass the SAVE Act, “which he has oddly weaponized against his own party.”
Despite overwhelming criticism, Trump’s team hailed the speech a success.
“WHAT A SPEECH! We must secure our elections and stop foreign interference,” said White House communications director Steven Cheung.
“PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” reacted Leavitt.
