Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel predicted Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Republicans will see a surge of voters heading to the polls on Election Day.
Partial transcript as follows:
BRENNAN: President Trump staged a late and historic surge back in 2016. But you heard there, there is record early turnout already at 2016 levels in Texas and Hawaii. It’s approaching them in a number of other key battlegrounds. So is your turnout get out the vote operation enough to help you close this on Election Day?
MCDANIEL: Well, I- I agree with the analysis we just had. COVID has changed things, so it’s pulled a lot of Democrat Election Day voters into that absentee and early vote category. And Republicans are wanting to vote on Election Day in person and cast their ballot that way. So we feel very strong that we have a surge coming on Election Day. We’ve also built the best ground game in history, with 2.5 million volunteers and 3,000 staff on the ground. And we are contacting these voters right now all weekend through the next few days to make sure they turn out to vote. But he’s exactly right. The margins are going to be based on that Election Day turnout, and Republicans will have a surge that day. We’re going to- we’re going to have that, and that’s why we’re going to win.
BRENNAN: The president said yesterday, if we win Pennsylvania, it’s over. But, you know, you need to do much more than that to get to- to 270. He’s playing defense in Florida. He’s playing defense in Georgia. What is the path to 270 that you have charted?
MCDANIEL: Well, Florida is critical, and we’ve seen us take the lead in early voting and really erase the deficit we had with the absentee ballots. So as our voters- as early voting becomes available to our voters, they’re doing it. And we feel very good about Florida. Georgia and North Carolina the same thing. As early voting has started in those states, Republicans have- have erased the lead that Democrats had in absentee ballots. And then, of course, you’ve got to go up to Arizona and then the Midwest states, which are all too critical. And the president has a record to run on. Joe Biden said I’m going to get rid of fracking. That’s critical in the state of Pennsylvania. When the president- when Joe Biden says I’m going to eliminate oil and gas, people in the Midwest are cold. We don’t want to pay more for gas and for heating costs. So these are really critical issues. And of course, Biden saying I’m going to raise your taxes is something that’s not tenable for a lot of people who are living paycheck to paycheck.
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