An Exasperated Karl Rove Urges Trump To Do Better On the Campaign Trail: ‘Much More Disciplined Message Needed’
Fox News dropped out of Donald Trump’s lengthy speech on the economy on Monday as the GOP presidential nominee looks to turn the tide on Vice President Kamala Harris, who continues to rise in the polls ahead of this week’s Democratic National Convention. The panel discussion following some of Trump’s remarks is certainly not what Trump would like to hear on Fox News and he’s made a regular habit of attacking one of the panelists — former Bush aide and campaign strategist Karl Rove.
“Okay, that’s President Trump in York, Pennsylvania. Keeping an eye on that speech on the economy. Brit Hume, Karl Rove, and Marie Harf are all here. Karl, let me start with you. This is obviously an effort which, you know, the other party always does as sort of counter-programming during the week of the opposite party’s convention. We’re going to hear from the former president every day this week. He’s there in York talking about the economy. What do you think about the message there?” asked anchor Martha MacCallum.
“Well, smart to go to a critical state,” replied Rove, offering a kind word before the rest of his analysis.
After an exasperated sigh, Rove added, “A much more disciplined message needed. I mean, I’ve been through this twice, and you want to go to your, you want to go to these places, and you want to have a simple message that the media has to cover.”
Rove, the last GOP presidential campaign manager to win the popular vote, added:
Instead, he gives them a gigantic smorgasbord. Some of it is written into a speech draft, but apparently some of it is just ad hoc, and they get to pick and choose. And who thinks that the dominant media in this country is going to is going to pick the thing that is best productive for him and getting votes.
They’re going to pick out something like he just said, casting aspersions on Kamala Harris or President Biden. So, yes, you want to do this? You want to go to critical states. He’s going later this week to Arizona, critical battleground state to talk about immigration. But in order to force the media to cover your message, you need to be disciplined, focused, and short.
And then they’ve got no option except to report to the people of Pennsylvania or the people of Arizona, whatever it is you want to have, you give them something big and outlandish and, you know, claims about this or that, and they’re going to pick the dominant media is going to pick out something nationwide that’s not going to be helpful to them. The local media may or may not get it right.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
