Fox News’ Karl Rove and Neil Cavuto Torch ‘Distracted’ Trump for Wasting Time on Conspiracy Theories: ‘So Easy to Do Better’

Fox News’ Karl Rove and Neil Cavuto took Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to task for wasting time on personal grudges and conspiracy theories on the campaign trail over the weekend, musing that it would be “so easy” to do better than he has.

“In the case of Donald Trump, he has a good economic argument to weigh here about the tax cuts and regulations from when he was in power. But he spends an inordinate amount of time talking about how the Democrats look ready to steal another election, saying that they cheat. He spends even more time focusing on a debate he clearly lost on the saying that ‘It was three against one. It wasn’t fair,'” observed Cavuto to kick off the conversation. “I just find that, you know, if you’re going to focus on things like the economy, focus on the economy, and then maybe today focus on this latest development in Israel, whatever. But he gets distracted and all over the map.”

“Yeah, Neil, I’m surprised that you left out one of the critical issues in this campaign, which is Fluffy and Fido are being eaten in Springfield, Ohio, which we are spending an inordinate amount of time on,” replied Rove sarcastically. “I couldn’t agree with you more. And look, in a presidential campaign, there are three important strengths, resources that you have: Money, issues, and time. And if you chew up time, you cannot create more time. You can always raise more money, You can always raise additional issues, but you can’t create more time. And he has chewed up valuable time talking about inconsequential things.”

He continued:

And what is the result of that? Take a look at this, this is out of the latest Fox poll. His lead on who is better to handle the issue of immigration is plus 15. And on the economy plus eight. But the last Fox poll, he was at 20% on immigration. He’s lost five points. He was 15 on the economy. It’s now down seven points o a lead of only eight.

So if you don’t stay focused on the big issues and you don’t lay out a forward-looking agenda that people can get their hands around, then you’re going to diminish the leads that you might have because of what you did four years ago. And that’s exactly what’s happening. And we’ve got 39 days left and if he’s not more disciplined, he could well lose this, even though he started it on July 21 when Biden pulled out in a very strong place.

Cavuto went on to wonder aloud why Trump wouldn’t simply acknowledge that he didn’t put on a great performance during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris last month.

“I’m not certain he needs to apologize for it, but he should have done better. And it was so easy to do better,” agreed Rove. “Look, for weeks the Harris campaign said ‘We’re going to try and provoke him.’ And they did and he fell for it each and every time.

“What would have happened when they said ‘Your crowds-‘ when she said, ‘Your crowds are small and people are bored?’ And if he had said in response, ‘I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to get me to talk about crowd size rather than your lousy record on the economy, inflation, cost of living, and the border. And I’m not going to fall for it. In fact, let me tell the American people what I’m going to do about those three big issues.’ I mean, the debate would have been over,” argued the veteran GOP operative.

“It would have been over. And similarly, rather than complaining about the ABC moderators, with just sort of, ‘You’re beating up on me.’ What if he said, ‘Look, I understand that you are, you know, that you are fact checking me, but pretend like you’re doing a fair job.’ You remember her opening statement, Neil? She said that Trump left her the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression, which was not true! Layup! Remember the double digit unemployment rates we had for years under Jimmy Carter?”

“I mean, it really was an astonishing performance,” he concluded.

Watch above via Fox News.