Karl Rove Says Press War ‘Does Not Help’ Trump: People ‘Screaming Their Cheers’ Are Small, Hard-core Base
On Fox News Sunday, as with all of the Sunday shows, the topic of President Trump and his battle with the press was a big topic. Chris Wallace and his guests covered it extensively in the panel segment, and Republican strategist and commentator Karl Rove made a very interesting point about how this plays for Trump when it comes to approval ratings and electoral prospects.
Wallace asked Rove how this was playing out for Trump. “Where is the line,” Wallace asked.
“Look, any White House has the right, if it disagrees with coverage, to be specific and precise in criticizing that coverage,” he said. “If the New York Times has a bad story about the Trump Administration, I think the administration ought to say we think this is what’s wrong.”
“But look, the ferocity of these generalized slurs, if you will, against the press and the frequency of them is disturbing to me. I watched the speech and I lost track, about 18 or 19 times that the president went after the press. And every time he did that crowd roared its approval,” Rove added. “But that crowd represents the hard-core trump base, this does not help him with his bigger problem.”
He cited the same Fox poll that he discussed earlier in the program, and said that it shows the press war, like some immigration issues, are not helping the President with population at large, even as they fire up his base.
“28% strongly approve, those are the people who were screaming their cheers when he said enemy of the people but 41% strongly disapprove,” he said. “That’s why the president’s numbers are so — he’s enraging the opposition while simply reinforcing a much smaller base.”
Watch the clip above, from Fox News.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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