Donald Trump’s Attacks On Joe Biden Aren’t Working, Karl Rove Warns
In an interview with Fox News that was broadcast on Wednesday, Republican Karl Rove warned that President Donald Trump’s attacks on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are not working.
Rove, who served as former President George W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff, argued that Trump should steer clear of alleging corruption and attacking Biden’s son, Hunter.
To illustrate his point, Rove pointed to a Washington Post op-ed penned by former White House chief speechwriter Marc Thiessen, who stated that Trump should “start winning over reluctant voters” instead of focusing on the purported corruption scandals involving the Biden family.
Rove said that the attacks that worked on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton four years ago do not seem to be working on Biden.
“We knew about Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton and all their dealings and all the stinky stuff for years. We don’t have a similar picture about Joe Biden,” he explained, arguing that it would be far more “effective” to talk about Biden’s policies in the final stretch of the campaign.
Rove pointed to Trump’s speech at a recent rally in Pennsylvania as an effective attack. During the speech, he repeatedly attacked his opponent for apparently flip-flopping on the issue of fracking, which many believe is important to working-class voters in the Keystone State.
Biden has seemingly made conflicting statements on the controversial practice. During the Democratic primaries, he suggested that he would ban fracking completely. He subsequently said that he would only ban the practice on federal lands.
According to Rove, the economy “matters a lot more than what’s going on with Hunter Biden and yet another scandal involving influence peddling on his father’s name.”
He said that Trump should “lead with the economy” and only address other issues if they come up, stressing that the commander-in-chief should do his best to “make a sharp contrast between his policies and the policies of Joe Biden.”
Other Republicans have issued similar warnings. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, a handful of Republican lawmakers advised Trump to stay away from personal attacks and focus on policy.
Senators John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, Mike Braun of Indiana and Roy Blunt of Missouri all argued that the commander-in-chief would benefit from sticking to issues voters care about, such as the economy and the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this week, GOP pollster Frank Luntz said the same, blasting Trump’s re-election campaign as the “worst” he has ever seen and saying that the president’s advisers should be “brought up on charges of political malpractice.”
