‘Continuing to Dig His Own Political Grave’: David Plouffe Warns Trump Must Broaden His Message Beyond Fox Base at RNC Convention

Former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe offered some unsolicited advice for President Donald Trump after a successful, tightly-messaged Democratic National Convention, saying the president must broaden his message beyond his Fox News base if he is to have a chance at winning the 2020 election.

Speaking on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, Plouffe told hold Brian Williams that Biden’s highly-praised acceptance speech, which earned high marks even on Fox News, culminated a strong week of outreach for Democrats—and presented a serious political dilemma for the president.

“Here’s Donald Trump’s problem,” Plouffe explained. “He’s losing this election. I still think it will tighten, but he’s losing it. Are any of the things you just showed going to convince somebody who might have voted for him in ’16 or undecided six months ago to vote for him? No. He’s basically continuing to dig his own political grave. And so the question is: Is he able to change next week?”

Previewing the Trump’s message at the Republican National Convention, Plouffe said a endless repetition of Twitter insults and cable news talking points won’t change the narrative of a campaign where Biden leads in a number of battleground states that Trump won four years ago.

“Are those voters going to hear something new, somebody more hopeful and disciplined?” Plouffe asked. “Or are we going to hear about Hunter Biden and the election’s fraudulent and Barack Obama is a criminal. His base will love that. The rest of the American people are going to tune him out. I said this previously, I’m fascinated to see what we see next week because if we just basically get the Donald Trump on Twitter and on Sean Hannity, that is not going to help him at all in my view.”

“He’s got to add vote to where he is now,” Plouffe added. “He’s behind. He’s got to find a way to get five or six percent more than he’s getting now, which is a lot of people. So that’s the question: Is what do we see next week? And, you know, I’m sure his advisers are telling him: ‘You have to give people a reason to be open to you electorally.’ But I’m not sure if he’s capable of doing that.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.