Rove: Trump Needs to ‘Make an Appeal for a Broader Group of People’

During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Fox News contributor Karl Rove, the former White House deputy chief of staff for George W. Bush, acknowledged the presidential race between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was tightening.

His prescription for Trump to eliminate the divide was to look beyond the Republican base and appeal to more voters.

Partial transcript as follows:

Well, first of all, it is tightening, and we don’t know exactly how much just yet, because we really do need to have polls that were conducted on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, so the convention is in the rear-view mirror.

But take a look at this, USA Today in June, they had a 12-point gap for Biden. They have now seven. Quinnipiac had a 15-point gap for Biden in July, now a 10-gap. Hill/Harris had 9 points just before the Democratic Convention, today plus six. Emerson had four points for Biden in July, two points today.

Now, there is one outlier. The Economist/YouGov had 10 before the Democratic Convention, nine after the Democratic Convention, so they actually had Biden going down one, and now it’s 11 today.

But my sense is that the polls have tightened some. But this is like World War I. Any movement is going to be very difficult and very small. But it’s been good movement for the president.

Now, what does he need to do? Look, the president’s base is with him. And no president ever gets elected, nobody ever gets elected president on the basis of their base only.

And so, the president has to continue to do what he did during the Republican convention, and that is make an appeal for a broader group of people, for suburbanites, particularly college-educated women who may like what he’s doing but don’t like how he’s done it, by African-American voters, particularly young black males who say, you know what, when 17, 18, and 19, I actually had better prosperity than I had when Barack Obama was president, and it was because of the policies of Donald Trump.

We saw that in the spring before the coronavirus came on. And then the winner, that that feeling was there among African-American voters. And this is one that’s going to grab you, Latinos. My sense is, looking at the data that I’ve been seeing, that the president has the ability to go from the 28 or 29 that he had in 2016, up to 24, 25, and 26. Again largely because but not exclusively because they felt they got a better economic deal when he was in office.

He’s also got a variety of people in the Latino community who say, you know what, he is standing up for us. He’s standing for law-abiding people who go to church, who go to work, who tried and provide for their families. And he is standing up to keep us safe.

So, you know, he got to keep doing what he started doing in the convention. I thought that was one of the reasons why it was so effective. You know, the first night Herschel Walker, the night that was anchored by your former colleague and very close friend Tim Scott and your former governor, Nikki Haley, I mean, that’s exactly the kind of Republican Party that the American people need to see.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor