As Fox News on-air talent go, Steve Doocy and Marc Thiessen are not former President Donald Trump’s favorites, as the 45th president has recently attacked both on social media. This is why Thursday morning’s segment focused on how Trump will almost certainly lose his current bid for president unless he appeals to Republicans who voted for Nikki Haley, whom he constantly attacked as a birdbrain,” was so interesting.
Thiessen was on Fox & Friends in the 6 a.m. hour to discuss, among other things, his recently published column in The Washington Post titled “Trump needs Haley voters to win back the White House.”
Thiessen argues that, yes, Biden is polling poorly, but there are enough “Never Trump” Republicans who backed Haley in protest of Trump that without that vote, he will end up being a back-to-back loser on general election days. Thiessen explains in his op-ed:
The issue facing Trump is not “Never Trump” voters who didn’t support him in the past and won’t vote for him now under any circumstances. It is “Not Trump Again” voters, Americans who are open to his policies — and might have voted for him before — but don’t like how he behaved, particularly after the 2020 election, and supported Haley in the primaries. The former group is unpersuadable; the latter might not be.But Trump has to go out and persuade them. He needs to recognize that right
now, the party is not united. It is deeply divided between the dominant MAGA wing, which encompasses about two-thirds of Republican voters, and the not-MAGA wing, which makes up about a third. Trump can’t take back the presidency without bringing the not-MAGA Republicans into his fold. But according to the Fox News Voter Analysis, 53 percent of not-MAGA Republicans in Iowa, 57 percent in South Carolina and 65 percent in New Hampshire say they won’t cast their ballot for Trump in November.
Thiessen makes a lot of sense just explaining the numbers and repeated many of the same talking points to Doocy.
“Nikki Haley is out of the race, but her voters will probably decide the 2024 election,” Thiessen asserted. “You know, they are they are the swing voters of 2024. They’re a mix of non-MAGA Republicans, mostly with some independents and Democrats mixed in. And they’re going to decide this race.”
It makes total sense. But there is a decent chance that one viewer watching Fox & Friends is seething with the idea that he is being called a potential loser and needs anyone’s support, especially those who voted for a woman he has repeatedly derided as “birdbrain.”
One can imagine a Truth Social retort complaining about RINO Doocy and Thiessen being drafted as we speak.
Don’t let Mediaite and its readers down, Mr. Trump.
Watch above via