Republican political strategist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/karl-rove" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karl Rove</a> said that President Joe Biden&#8217;s presidential campaign made a &#8220;stupid mistake&#8221; on Tuesday by showing up to Trump&#8217;s trial in New York City.
After largely ignoring Trump’s ongoing hush-money trial in New York, Biden’s campaign held an event outside the courthouse as the trial was set to go to closing arguments. The Biden campaign invited Robert De Niro, a vocal critic of the former president, to speak. De Niro denounced Trump and claimed the American system of government is at stake in the 2024 election.
&#8220;Stupid mistake by the Biden campaign,&#8221; Rove said on Fox News. &#8220;They wanted to get in while all the cameras were there, they wanted to get their moment in the sun. It was a big mistake. It politicizes the trial. Better to have waited. And then what was said — with all respect to De Niro, a wonderful actor — really? The people up for grabs in this election, &#8216;Donald Trump wants to destroy New York, destroy America, and destroy the world? And if you re-elect him he will never leave office and make himself a tyrant for life?'&#8221;
&#8220;Are those the kind of credible statements that will cause people who don&#8217;t like Biden and don&#8217;t like Trump but are trying to figure out who to vote for, will they say, &#8216;Jeez, you told me he wanted to destroy our country,'&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The people who believe that are already in the Biden camp. That&#8217;s not who they should be trying to reach out to. He came close in a moment of talking about January 6th and talking about the two officers, but that might have had an impact, but this was so over the top as to simply be useless. What a stupid mistake on the part of the Biden campaign. More reason why Democratic leaders are probably going to be concerned that he is the nominee, likely nominee of their party.&#8221;
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WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
‘Stupid Mistake!’: Karl Rove Torches Biden Campaign for Holding Bizarre Robert De Niro Press Conference <a href="https://t.co/LUfk2WbLH1">pic.twitter.com/LUfk2WbLH1</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1795533139495776494?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2024</a></blockquote>

Former President Donald Trump’s Hush-Money Criminal Trial

Top GOP Strategist: Biden Just Made A Major Mistake By Having His Campaign Show Up To Trump Trial

Donald Trump

Elections

Joe Biden

Karl Rove

Politics

Robert de Niro

Republican political strategist Karl Rove dressed down President Joe Biden&#8217;s campaign during a Tuesday morning appearance on Fox News, saying that they had made a &#8220;stupid mistake&#8221; in bringing in actor Robert De Niro to hold a press conference outside former President Donald Trump&#8217;s Manhattan hush-money trial.
Rove made the comments during an appearance on &#8220;America&#8217;s Newsroom,&#8221; where he told anchor Dana Perino that the press conference had crossed a line, telegraphing that even the Biden campaign understood the political nature of the prosecution against Trump.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Karl Rove: &#8220;Stupid Mistake&#8221; For Biden Campaign To &#8220;Politicize&#8221; Trump Trial With &#8220;Over The Top&#8221; De Niro Appearance<a href="https://t.co/MOc6IBJKj2">https://t.co/MOc6IBJKj2</a>
&#8220;The people who believe that are already in the Biden camp.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/g5w5klLJHm">pic.twitter.com/g5w5klLJHm</a>
— RCP Video (@rcpvideo) <a href="https://twitter.com/rcpvideo/status/1795478268411334840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Stupid mistake by the Biden campaign! They wanted to get, while all the cameras were there, they wanted to get their moment in the sun. And it was a big mistake,&#8221; Rove said. &#8220;It politicized the trial — better to have waited.&#8221;
&#8220;And then what was said, with all due respect to Mr. De Niro, who’s a wonderful, wonderful actor, I mean, really the people up for grabs in this election, are they going to be, &#8216;Donald Trump wants to destroy New York, destroy America, and destroy the world. And if you reelect him, he’s never going to leave office. He’s going to make himself a tyrant for life,'&#8221; Rove continued. &#8220;Are those the kind of credible statements that are going to cause people who don’t like Biden and don’t like Trump, but are trying to figure out who to vote for, are they going to cause people to say, &#8216;Well, geez, you now told me you wanted to destroy our country? Of course he did.&#8217; The people who believe that are already in the Biden camp.&#8221;
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Rove went on to say that the campaign should have used De Niro to reach out to voters who were on the fences — and instead, his &#8220;over-the-top&#8221; anti-Trump screed had only appealed to those who would have voted for Biden regardless.
&#8220;This was so over the top as to simply be useless. And what a stupid mistake on the part of the Biden campaign. More reason why Democratic leaders are probably going to be concerned that he’s the nominee, likely nominee of their party,&#8221; Rove concluded.

FOX News Election Night Coverage

Karl Rove Blows Up Biden Campaign Over De Niro Presser: ‘It Politicized The Trial’

Karl Rove Blows Up Biden Campaign Over De Niro Presser: 'It Politicized The Trial'

Courts

Top Republican strategist <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/karl-rove" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karl Rove</a>, now a Fox News contributor, said during a segment this week that the U.S. has been governed by the &#8220;boomer&#8221; generation for nearly 32 years, and that now is the time for fresh leadership on both sides of the aisle.
Rove made the remarks when asked about his Wall Street Journal column this week, &#8220;Okay Boomers, Let Go Of The Presidency.&#8221;
&#8220;President Biden is thinking about, he&#8217;s 80 years old, he&#8217;s thinking about seeking reelection. He’d be 82, shortly before his, if he were to win, his second inaugural; he&#8217;d be closer to 90 at the end of his second term. He’s already struggling; who thinks he&#8217;s going to get better?&#8221; Rove said. &#8220;Is he going to get mentally sharper? Is he going to get physically more energetic? Is he going to be on top of things better than he has been? Are we going to have fewer missteps in his communication? Are we going to have less confusion at the end of events? Are we going to have stronger leadership? No. The answer is no.&#8221;
&#8220;And the same with his potential opponent, Donald Trump, who &#8230; would be 78 at the time of his, at the time of the election and hoping to serve, he can only serve one term, hoping to be, you know, he&#8217;d be 82, 83 by the time he finishes that term if he got elected,&#8221; he continued.
&#8220;In 2024, we will have been governed by a boomer president for 32 years, and the time has come to pass the mantle of leadership, in my opinion, to a younger generation to be the chief executive of the United States,&#8221; he later added.
WATCH:
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TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS: All right, switching back to domestic politics now. New reports this week that the Biden family is giving their full support if the president decides to run again in 2024. He will be nearly 82 years old on Election Day if he runs again. Our next guest has got a plea for both parties: please let a younger generation step in. Let&#8217;s bring in Karl Rove. And Karl, I want to point to your column in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, where you said, let&#8217;s put it up on the screen, “Okay, Boomers, Let Go of the Presidency,” said the boomer.
KARL ROVE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Yeah. So look, you and I are both boomers. I don&#8217;t think either one of us, frankly, is up to the job of being President of the United States. We both know from having been around the White House that this is a pretty demanding job. And think about it, President Biden is thinking about — he&#8217;s 80 years old — he’s thinking about seeking reelection, he&#8217;d be 82, shortly before his, if he were to win, his second inaugural, he&#8217;d be closer to 90 at the end of his second term. He’s already struggling; who thinks he&#8217;s going to get better? Is he going to get mentally sharper? Is he going to get physically more energetic? Is he going to be on top of things better than he has been? Are we going to have fewer missteps in his communication? Are we going to have less confusion at the end of events? Are we going to have stronger leadership? No. The answer is no. And the same with his potential opponent, Donald Trump, who &#8230; would be 78 at the time of his, at the time of the election and hoping to serve, he can only serve one term, hoping to be, you know, he&#8217;d be 82, 83 by the time he finishes that term if he got elected.
ROBERTS: So you&#8217;re saying that what we need to do is we need to turn back the clock and look at 1960 — or I guess 1992 is a good comparative time period as well — when the older guard was replaced by the new guard.
ROVE: Yeah, think about it. In 1960, we had an election in which the country said, you know what, we really appreciate Dwight D. Eisenhower, but he was born before the turn of the 20th century. He&#8217;s the last president of the United States born in the 19th century. And they chose, they ended up selecting two young men, the youngest candidates on both the Democratic side and Republican side won their respective party nominations, both of them in the in their 40s, both of them combat veterans, ironically enough, of the Pacific Theater in World War Two. And for 32 years thereafter, we were governed by somebody from the greatest generation. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush was the last of that generation. He was defeated by a boomer. In 2024, we will have been governed by a boomer president for 32 years, and the time has come to pass the mantle of leadership, in my opinion, to a younger generation to be the chief executive of the United States.
ROBERTS: Well, there are a number of them out there, though nobody on the Democratic side willing to put up their hand and say, “I&#8217;m going to challenge Joe Biden.”</blockquote>

Screen Shot 2022-07-12 at 8.38.58 AM

Top Political Strategist: America Has Been Governed By ‘Boomers’ For Decades, It’s Time For Younger Faces

Top Political Strategist: America Has Been Governed By 'Boomers' For Decades, It's Time For Younger Faces

Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove slammed White House Council of Economic Adviser Chairman Brian Deese for calling for more federal spending to combat inflation.
Appearing as a panelist on &#8220;Fox News Sunday,&#8221; Rove blasted Deese, who had been interviewed earlier in the program, for failing to acknowledge that the root cause of inflation is reckless government spending. Rove described Deese as &#8220;one of the most fervent advocates for making it worse.&#8221;
During the interview, <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6306622584112?playlist_id=930909788001#sp=show-clips">Deese</a> said that the U.S. economy was &#8220;in a period of transition&#8221; from rapid recovery to &#8220;a period of more stable and resilient growth.&#8221; Guest host Martha MacCallum challenged Deese on the point, noting that soaring <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/experts-make-dire-warning-on-already-record-level-inflation">inflation</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nationwide-gas-prices-expected-could-hit-staggering-new-high-by-august-top-u-s-bank-analyst-says">gas prices</a>, combined with a declining <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/20/stocks-head-for-another-potentially-treacherous-week-after-sp-500-falls-into-bear-market-territory.html">stock market</a>, are forcing Americans to make difficult decisions.
&#8220;What do you recommend to them in terms of specifics and what they can do to try to weather this a little bit easier as we go through what you&#8217;re calling a transition?&#8221; MacCallum asked.
&#8220;What people should know is that we can do this,&#8221; Deese responded. &#8220;We know how to do this. First, we need to give the Federal Reserve the independence to do what it does. It has the tools to combat inflation. Second, we need to reduce costs and make things more affordable for families during this period&#8230; reduce the cost of the Internet bills that families pay, or the prescription drug prices that they pay&#8230; And, third, we need to bring down the federal deficit. Because of the president&#8217;s policies, we&#8217;ve made a lot of progress on that front, the deficit down $1.5 trillion already this year. But we need to make more progress on that as well. That will help produce price pressures in the economy.&#8221;
&#8220;We need to build a more resilient recovery,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We&#8217;re on the way. We&#8217;ve got to focus on tackling inflation right now, and that&#8217;s what this president&#8217;s doing.&#8221;
MacCallum then asked Rove during the panel segment to respond to Deese&#8217;s comments.
&#8220;Well, if you don&#8217;t know what the problem is, you can&#8217;t come up with a solution,&#8221; Rove <a href="https://radio.foxnews.com/podcast/fox-news-sunday/">responded</a>. &#8220;And he, obviously, doesn&#8217;t know what the problem is. The problem was identified last year, when this administration proposed a $1.9 trillion unnecessary Covid stimulus bill. And Larry Summers, Bill Clinton&#8217;s Treasury Secretary, said you&#8217;re going to throw gasoline on the fire of inflation. And that&#8217;s exactly what happened. And since then, Brian Deese has been one of the most fervent advocates for making it worse. What you heard him say there, he sort of carefully camouflaged it, was, Build Back Better. Let&#8217;s pass a new bill that supposedly lowers costs by spending lots of government money on free child care, for universal pre-K, pharmaceuticals, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. [That would] only make it worse. The administration is in bad shape on this issue. [A] <a href="https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/05/Fox_April-28-May-1-2022_National_Topline_May-3-Release.pdf">36 percent approval</a> on the economy, 60 percent disapproval, and, inflation, 26 percent approve, 68 percent disapprove, and that&#8217;s why&#8211; policies like the ones that Mr. Deese was talking about.&#8221;

Milken Institute 2019 Global Conference

Karl Rove Blasts WH Economic Adviser Calling For More Spending: ‘Gasoline On The Fire’

Fox News Sunday

Inflation

Martha MacCallum

After declaring the Republican Party to be in disarray after the violence on Capitol Hill Wednesday, political strategist Karl Rove slammed President Trump&#8217;s declaration of peace as &#8220;too little, too late.&#8221;
Speaking with Martha MacCallum of Fox News, Rove said that President Trump only admitted defeat after building up his supporters&#8217; hopes by &#8220;peddling a bunch of nonsense theories&#8221; for weeks.
Rove said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s new video condemning the riots at the U.S. Capitol and promising a peaceful transition of power to the Biden administration was “too little, too late.”
&#8220;Too little, too late,&#8221; <a href="https://video.foxnews.com/v/6221117268001#sp=show-clips">exclaimed Rove</a>. &#8220;He said that he’d exhausted every appeal to overturn the election after weeks of pedaling a bunch of nonsense theories, including on Saturday, when he told the secretary of state of Georgia that 50,000 Georgians had shown up at the polls and been turned away because someone had already voted for them. That’s one out of every 20 voters that appeared on election day. He said we need to have tempers cooled the day after he gave an hour and 20-minute long speech inciting tens of thousands of people to march to the Capitol and show strength. Don’t show weakness, he said. [He] talked about reconciliation a day after he threatened his own vice president unless he did an unconstitutional act.”
“He said we’re going to have a smooth transition now 13 days before the next president takes office and nearly two months after the election,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And he finally decried violence 27 hours after people broke into our Capitol, broke through police lines, broke through barricades, and attempted to take control of the House and Senate chambers. Yesterday, all he could do [was] muster a tweet, a video in which he called them special people and said, I ‘love you.’ No, Martha, too little, too late. This will be a stain on Donald Trump, despite all of the good things he may have done as president, this is going to be the stain that remains.&#8221;
As to what President Trump should do over the next 13 days, Rove said that he does not believe that the president should resign or that he should be impeached, and Rove simply advised him to lay low and stay out of the public eye.
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Rove lamented that the riots on Capitol Hill Wednesday has left the Republican Party in disarray.
“President Trump may have been correct at his Monday rally when he said of Georgia Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler: ‘If they win I’ll get no credit, and if they lose they’re going to blame Trump.’ But Tuesday’s election and Wednesday’s mob assault on Congress were stark examples of the destructive reactions the president can generate,” wrote Rove.
“It’s a mess. The GOP is bitterly split, Democrats will control the presidency, Senate and House, and 34% of Americans wrongly believe the election was rigged,” he concluded. “The Trump presidency is ending with his followers violently shutting down the Capitol. Helluva way to start 2021.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/karl-rove-the-republican-party-is-in-disarray">Karl Rove: ‘The Republican Party Is In Disarray’</a>

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney addresses the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

‘Too Little, Too Late’: Karl Rove Slams Trump’s Peace Statement

In the wake of the riot on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, Republicans from all corners of the party have been stepping up to collectively condemn the violence and give analysis about the future of the GOP. In a sobering op-ed for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-republican-party-is-in-disarray-11609975948?mod=opinion_lead_pos8">The Wall Street Journal</a>, political strategist Karl Rove simply said that the Republican Party is now in disarray.
&#8220;President Trump may have been correct at his Monday rally when he said of Georgia Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler: &#8216;If they win I’ll get no credit, and if they lose they’re going to blame Trump.&#8217; But Tuesday’s election and Wednesday’s mob assault on Congress were stark examples of the destructive reactions the president can generate,&#8221; wrote Rove.
As a number of Republicans have pointed out since the November election, Democrats gained in one major, key demographic: suburbanites, whom they’ve attracted, increasingly, since 2016
&#8220;One Trump effect was felt in Atlanta’s suburbs. In Clayton County in November, Democrat Jon Ossoff had a 71-point lead; on Tuesday it was 77. In DeKalb Mr. Ossoff led by 64 points in November; on Tuesday he led by 67,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;In Gwinnett he led by 16 points in November and 20 on Tuesday. In <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/politics/elections/georgia-runoffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fulton</a>, the state’s most populous county, Mr. Ossoff’s November lead was 41.6 points; on Tuesday, 43 points. These were enough to erase Mr. Perdue’s 88,000 vote lead in November and propel Mr. Ossoff to a narrow victory.&#8221;
&#8220;Mr. Trump tried to turn out his rural Georgia supporters, but the results were uneven and insufficient. Take the 14th Congressional District, which the president visited Monday. In November it had roughly 328,000 voters turn out; on Tuesday only 282,000 voted there, though there are several thousand ballots still outstanding,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;A key factor was the decision by many independents and soft Republicans to vote Democrat—largely, it appears, in response to Mr. Trump’s actions since the presidential election. These helped Democrats make the race about Mr. Trump and undermined GOP efforts to highlight the Democratic candidates’ left-wing views and present a Republican Senate as a check on Democrats in Washington.&#8221;
After criticizing Trump for his claims of a stolen election amid the Georgia run-off campaign, Rove did correctly turn his eye at Democrats for the precedent they set by questioning previous Electoral College results.
&#8220;As Democrats ride their high horses about Wednesday’s congressional fiasco, it’s worth recalling that they’ve also challenged Electoral College results. In 2001 the House Democrats’ effort fizzled on the floor when they failed to recruit the necessary senator to force a debate,&#8221; he wrote.  &#8220;These weren’t backbenchers: One, John Conyers, was later Judiciary Committee chair and another, Maxine Waters, had been Congressional Black Caucus chair. Then in 2005, as wild rumors swirled over President George W. Bush’s 118,601-vote Ohio win—including that I’d ordered a would-be whistleblower murdered—House members got their raucous debate after being joined by California Sen. Barbara Boxer.&#8221;
That said, Rove noted that never has a sitting president actively incited &#8220;a crowd to shut down the Congress as it received the Electoral College results.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s a mess. The GOP is bitterly split, Democrats will control the presidency, Senate and House, and 34% of Americans wrongly believe the election was rigged,&#8221; he concluded. &#8220;The Trump presidency is ending with his followers violently shutting down the Capitol. Helluva way to start 2021.&#8221;

Karl Rove in Austin Texas USA

Karl Rove: ‘The Republican Party Is In Disarray’

Electoral College

Georgia

Republican Party

<div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="1" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">
One week after the presidential election, GOPers are still holding out hope that President Donald Trump will litigate his way to victory, but political strategist Karl Rove has warned people not to get their hopes up.
In an op-ed published for <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-election-result-wont-be-overturned-11605134335" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:2;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="4" data-v9y="1">The Wall Street Journal</a>, Rove said that even though the president was &#8220;100% within his rights&#8221; to challenge the fairness of the election, the possibility of overturning the results is incredibly slim.
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&#8220;The president’s efforts are unlikely to move a single state from Mr. Biden’s column, and certainly they’re not enough to change the final outcome,” Rove wrote. “To win, Mr. Trump must prove systemic fraud, with illegal votes in the tens of thousands. There is no evidence of that so far.”
Rove did have some advice for Trump: let the legal battles play out and then peacefully concede the election so that the country can unite.
&#8220;Closing out this election will be a hard but necessary step toward restoring some unity and political equilibrium,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Once his days in court are over, the President should do his part to unite the country by leading a peaceful transition and letting grievances go.&#8221;
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has largely maintained neutrality as Trump challenges the election, though he did criticize Democrats for pushing Russian collusion nearly every day of Trump&#8217;s presidency.
“More broadly, let’s have no lectures about how the President should immediately, cheerfully accept preliminary election results from the same characters who just spent four years refusing to accept the validity of the last election,” McConnell later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mcconnell-well-have-no-lectures-from-those-who-spent-4-years-refusing-to-accept-2016-election">said on the Senate floor</a>. “And who insinuated this one would be illegitimate, too, if they lost again. Let’s have no lectures on this subject from that contingent.”
“In late August, Secretary Hillary Clinton said, quote, ‘Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances… I think this is going to drag out, and… he will win if we don’t give an inch,’” McConnell continued. “That same month, Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic Leader both stated, quote, ‘[President Trump] needs to cheat to win.’ In October, when Speaker Pelosi was shopping some conspiracy theory about the Postal Service, she recklessly said, quote, ‘I have no doubt that the president… will lie, cheat, and steal, to win this election.’”
Former Trump confidante Chris Christie has cautioned Republicans against &#8220;blindly&#8221; following Trump without serious evidence of widespread voter fraud.
&#8220;I think it was so important early on to say to the president: If your base is for not conceding [because] there was voter fraud, then show us,” Christie said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “Because if you don’t show us, we can’t do this. We can’t back you blindly without evidence.”
“Friendship means that you will listen to somebody, give them their opportunity, and if they don’t come forward with the proof, then it’s time to move on,” he added.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/christie-republicans-cant-follow-trump-blindly-without-evidence-of-voter-fraud">Christie: Republicans Can’t Follow Trump ‘Blindly’ Without Evidence Of Voter Fraud</a>
</div>

Karl Rove: Trump Will Not Overturn Election Results

2020 Election

GOP strategist Karl Rove predicts that the Trump 2020 campaign will have a difficult time winning Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/karl-rove-trump-campaign-is-being-cautious-in-the-rust-belt">Fox News</a>.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen some evidence in the public polling, but my sense is that Trump campaign feels very, very cautious about their chances in those three states,&#8221; Rove told &#8220;America&#8217;s Newsroom&#8221; hosts on Tuesday.
President Trump won the Rust Belt states by narrow margins mostly because of low voter turnout for Hillary Clinton. Rove said that President Trump would have to compensate for those three states if he were to lose them this time around.
&#8220;If he loses these three states, he is no longer president unless he makes it up elsewhere,&#8221; Rove said.
Should Biden win the nomination, Rove said that Trump will have his work cut out for him in the Rust Belt states given that Biden was born in Pennsylvania and now has his headquarters there.
&#8220;[Biden] has his headquarters in Philadelphia and recognizes how central it can be to the general election,&#8221; Rove said. &#8220;Biden is missing no tricks. [Pennsylvania] will be a tough state for the president to hold and it&#8217;s critical that he hold it.&#8221;
Rove said that Trump will most likely refocus his efforts on states like Colorado, New Hampshire, Nevada, and New Mexico if he loses support in the Rust Belt.
Despite Rove&#8217;s predictions, Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) believes that Trump will not only be victorious in Pennsylvania but victorious by an even wider margin, noting that Joe Biden has no connection to the state whatsoever.
&#8220;He left Pennsylvania 67 years ago&#8230; Remember, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/politics/the-clintons" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hillary Clinton</a> came from Scranton too and we all know what happened there,&#8221; Barletta told &#8220;America&#8217;s Newsroom.&#8221;
Barletta &#8220;begged&#8221; Trump to not believe the polls in Pennsylvania, noting that he trailed Hillary Clinton by six points in 2016, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-will-win-pennsylvania-again-barletta">Fox News</a>. He said this stems from the fact that Democrats and Independents in the state still fear disclosing their full opinions to pollsters.
On Monday night, more than 10,000 people showed up to the Trump rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, where the president reminded the crowd that his future opponent, Joe Biden, left Pennsylvania behind long ago.
&#8220;And don&#8217;t forget: Biden deserted you,&#8221; Trump said at the rally. &#8220;He&#8217;s not from Pennsylvania. I guess he was born here, but he left you, folks. He left you for another state. Remember that, please. I meant to say that. This guy talks about, &#8216;Oh, I know Scranton.&#8217; Well, I know the places better. He left you for another state, and he didn&#8217;t take care of you, because he didn&#8217;t take care of your jobs. He let other countries come in and rip off America. That doesn&#8217;t happen anymore.&#8221;
Rep. Barletta said that Trump&#8217;s rally was basically a sequel to everything he saw in 2016, with thousands waiting in lines outside.
&#8220;This is a replay of what I saw in the last election. &#8230; I think he&#8217;s gonna win Pennsylvania by more than he won the last time,&#8221; said Barletta. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure the experts will say differently, but let&#8217;s watch and see. I don&#8217;t know if they&#8217;ve learned anything in four years.&#8221;

Karl Rove: Trump 2020 Has An Uphill Battle In Rust Belt States

The democratic socialist octogenarian Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) could defeat President Trump in 2020, says Republican strategist Karl Rove.
Speaking with &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; on Friday, the man who helped propel President George W. Bush to the White House said Sen. Sanders&#8217; appearance on a Fox News town hall this week convinced him that the 77-year-old could defeat Trump in the general election, reports <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-trump-2020-karl-rove">Fox News</a>.
Rove said that Sanders made the right call by going on Fox News, flouting DNC chair Tom Perez&#8217;s decision to blackball Fox News from hosting Democratic presidential primary debates.
&#8220;That was a smart move on his part,&#8221; Rove said, later adding that Sanders has learned from previous mistakes. &#8220;He is a lot more fluid.&#8221;
Rove noted that Sanders made smart pivots to issues he wanted to discuss when anchors Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier pressed him about his taxes, which showed him clearly to be among Sanders&#8217; own dreaded &#8220;one percent.&#8221;
&#8220;He says, &#8216;I paid all the taxes I owe,&#8217; and he quickly pivots and says, &#8216;I released 10 years of tax returns, President Trump ought to do the same,'&#8221; Rove said on Fox News. &#8220;Martha says, &#8216;You know, here&#8217;s Mayor Pete, he says there should be a new generation of leadership. You will be 79 if you&#8217;re sworn in as president.&#8217; He makes a joke. He says, &#8216;It&#8217;s a fair question.&#8217; He says, &#8216;It&#8217;s not whether you&#8217;re young or old, it&#8217;s what you believe.'&#8221;
&#8220;Every time he brought it back to his message,&#8221; Rove continued. &#8220;That demonstrated to me that he has learned from having run before. He really did a good job of softening the edges of socialism. Whenever the issue came up, he made it feel warm and fuzzy, kumbaya, shake hands, run around the campfire.&#8221;
The GOP strategist said that Sanders could have a winning ticket if he simply pushes his own message and does not spend his whole campaign bashing President Trump. Rove even said that Trump&#8217;s campaign already sees Bernie as a formidable opponent.
&#8220;Some of the Trump campaign people said, &#8216;You know what? We&#8217;re paying attention to this guy,&#8221; Rove said. &#8220;&#8216;We&#8217;ve got to take him seriously.'&#8221;
Rove is not the only mainstream Republican to see Bernie as a potential 2020 threat. Just this week, former Trump enthusiast Ann Coulter said <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46159/ann-coulter-i-would-vote-bernie-sanders-if-he-paul-bois">she would vote for Bernie</a> so long as he became more hardline on immigration, a position he once held.
&#8220;If he went back to his original position, which is the pro-blue-collar position. I mean, it totally makes sense with him,&#8221; Coulter said on PBS. &#8220;If he went back to that position, I&#8217;d vote for him. I might work for him. I don&#8217;t care about the rest of the socialist stuff. Just &#8212; can we do something for ordinary Americans?&#8221;
Earlier this month, Sanders rejected the prospect of open borders, saying the United States should not take in more poor people when it cannot take care of its own. &#8220;What we need is comprehensive immigration reform,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;If you open the borders, my God, there&#8217;s a lot of poverty in this world, and you&#8217;re going to have people from all over the world. And I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s something that we can do, at this point. Can&#8217;t do it. So that is not my position.&#8221;

Karl Rove: Bernie Sanders Could Defeat Trump In 2020

Bernie Sanders

Bush administration alumnus and GOP operative Karl Rove didn&#8217;t hold back any punches Wednesday, blasting president-elect Donald Trump for recklessly using Twitter to disseminate false information about a &#8220;major American company.&#8221;
In an interview with Fox News&#8217; Bill Hemmer, Rove argued that Trump&#8217;s criticisms about Boeing&#8217;s price-gouging were not only profoundly inaccurate, but likely had a &#8220;negative impact&#8221; on the company&#8217;s stock prices. 
Here&#8217;s the tweet that will one day be cataloged in the &#8220;post-truth&#8221; section of the Library of Congress&#8217; digital archives.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/806134244384899072">December 6, 2016</a></blockquote>
To be clear, &#8220;post-truth&#8221; is a euphemism for &#8220;lie.&#8221; As Rove pointed out, Trump&#8217;s allegations against Boeing have no basis in reality.
&#8220;He said something that was not accurate that had a negative impact on that stock, namely that there was a $4 billion contract,&#8221; Rove said of Trump.&#8221;There is no contract for $4 billion; there&#8217;s a contract for $170 million. There is no $4 billion contract.&#8221;
The GOP strategist went on to highlight the fact that Trump&#8217;s populist posturing likely had the opposite effect of what was intended. The president-elect likely hurt everyday Americans with his falsehoods.
&#8220;The impulse &#8212; that we want to save the taxpayers money &#8212; that&#8217;s admirable. But this was fire, ready, aim, in my opinion,&#8221; Rove asserted. &#8220;What he did yesterday was he de-stabled the stock of a major American company. That stock is held by millions of Americans.&#8221;
Rove continued, giving the president-elect a much-needed economics lesson on the reality of shareholder equity.
&#8220;Now, it&#8217;s not just a bunch of executives in Chicago or a bunch of management types sitting in Charlotte, N.C., or Seattle, Wash., where they have their management facilities,&#8221; Rove said of America&#8217;s largest aircraft manufacturer. &#8220;[It&#8217;s held by] pension funds, by university endowments, by ordinary people who&#8217;ve invested in Boeing. There&#8217;s one elemental thing a president ought to keep in mind, which is the power of his words, and therefore, the accuracy of his words.&#8221;
Unfortunately, Rove is one of a handful of Republicans who have yet to sell their souls to <a href="Mephistopheles">Trumptopheles</a>.
As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ben Shapiro <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/11431/great-soul-sucking-republicans-embrace-big-ben-shapiro">explains</a>, &#8220;the soul-sucking machine has grown stronger&#8230; Republicans are now embracing revenge politics, the notion that the president should use the executive branch to punish enemies.&#8221;
Shapiro points specifically to the GOP&#8217;s relative silence about Trump&#8217;s disruption of the natural ebb and flow of the free market, arguing that there&#8217;s ample circumstantial evidence to suggest that the president-elect&#8217;s tweet about Boeing may have been retribution for &#8220;negative comments about his trade policies from Boeing&#8217;s CEO.&#8221;
Indeed, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg&#8217;s comments about Trump&#8217;s protectionist trade policies were published in the Chicago Tribune a little over an hour before the now-infamous tweet, raising questions about Trump&#8217;s motivations.

Karl Rove Slams Trump for Torpedoing Boeing Stock

Conservatism

Trump Administration

Two weeks ago, the ultimate establishment Republican, Karl Rove, met with Donald Trump in Manhattan, giving rise to speculation that Rove might aid Trump with fund-raising, something Trump <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/6175/will-trump-bankrupt-rnc-hank-berrien">badly needs</a> despite his boasts of using his own personal wealth to run a campaign.
Rove met with Trump at the behest of Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn, who hosted the two men at his home, according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/us/politics/karl-rove-donald-trump.html?_r=1&amp;referer=">The New York Times</a>.
Although the two men may have effected a rapprochement, after Rove&#8217;s consistent insults directed at Trump during the campaign ( &#8220;a complete idiot&#8221; &#8220;graceless and divisive&#8221;). Rove later slammed Trump&#8217;s performance at a news conference, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m not certain it helps him with the people who are swing voters, up for grabs, and it certainly is very unpresidential. It would not be a good spectacle for our country to have a President Trump acting like candidate Trump acted yesterday.&#8221;
Still, Rove has connections to super PACs and key donors like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/sheldon-adelson?inline=nyt-per&amp;version=meter+at+4&amp;module=meter-Links&amp;pgtype=article&amp;contentId=&amp;mediaId=&amp;referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Fcheats%2F2016%2F06%2F02%2Freport-karl-rove-met-with-trump.html&amp;priority=true&amp;action=click&amp;contentCollection=meter-links-click">Sheldon Adelson</a>, who has already hinted he would give Trump $100 million. The Times reported, &#8220;Mr. Rove has talked with Mr. Adelson about what super PAC to use as a vehicle for donating such a large sum of money to support Mr. Trump, including possibly using the Crossroads fund-raising groups, which he helped establish, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.&#8221;
The two men have a contentious history; Rove <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-not-trump-gop-rises-1459984607">wrote</a> about Trump in April that he was &#8220;a petty man consumed by resentment and bitterness who finds satisfaction in sowing, rather than in healing, divisions.&#8221;
<blockquote>
&#8220;A petty man consumed by resentment and bitterness who finds satisfaction in sowing, rather than in healing, divisions.&#8221;
Karl Rove describing Donald Trump in April
</blockquote>
In February, Rove <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFvv1Nq2obo">hinted</a> Trump&#8217;s campaign might have plateaued, prompting Trump to tweet, &#8220;@KarlRove on @FoxNews is working hard to belittle my victory. Rove is sick!&#8221;
In March, Rove pointed out that Trump&#8217;s favorability numbers were &#8220;<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/an-ugly-general-election-takes-shape-1459379560">staggeringly bad</a>.&#8221; Rove <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-not-trump-gop-rises-1459984607">wrote</a> about Trump in April that he was &#8220;a petty man consumed by resentment and bitterness who finds satisfaction in sowing, rather than in healing, divisions.&#8221;

You’ll Never Guess Which Establishment Figure Just Met With Donald Trump

Karl Rove is back. And he&#8217;s now pushing Donald Trump.
According to <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/karl-rove-donald-trump-221926">Politico</a>, while Rove has said that Trump is a &#8220;petty man consumed by resentment and bitterness,&#8221; Rove&#8217;s super PAC is pitching itself as Trump&#8217;s best hope for the White House:
<blockquote>
The apparent warming of the American Crossroads super PAC and its sister groups to Trump has become evident in its recent communications with donors, including a Tuesday afternoon &#8220;investor conference call,&#8221; according to multiple sources familiar with the outreach. The phone call &#8212; which featured Rove, Crossroads officials and a pollster &#8212; laid out swing state polling and electoral map analysis done by the group showing circumstances in which Trump could beat Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, in a general election, according to three sources briefed on the call.
</blockquote>
Now, one of two things is true: either Rove is lying when he says he thinks Trump can&#8217;t win, or he&#8217;s lying when he says Trump can win. If it&#8217;s the former, Rove&#8217;s supposed anti-Trump showing means nothing &#8211; he&#8217;s willing to back the strong horse when the time comes to raise cash for his super PAC. If it&#8217;s the latter, he&#8217;s apparently selling a con to his donors, telling them that he can help defeat Hillary when he knows that&#8217;s essentially impossible.
My bet is the latter.
American Crossroads doesn&#8217;t support Trump. They think he&#8217;s a terrible candidate, in all likelihood. They&#8217;re pitching the notion that they can help him win because that&#8217;s how consultants operate: they tell donors that victory is within grasp if only they shell out a bit more money. They won&#8217;t stop the money train just because they think the candidate is hopeless.
But herein lies the problem: instead of using donor cash to build for the future if Trump ends up the nominee, the consultant class will just make money off of him. They&#8217;ll keep selling donors &#8211; mostly older folks who see the time horizon shrinking for victory &#8211; on the notion that one more check will make all the difference. Trump pledged to stop the consultant class, but there&#8217;s no reason to believe him: he&#8217;s now hiring all the top consultants.
Trump biggest lie is that he&#8217;ll change the way politics works. He won&#8217;t. He&#8217;ll just do what American Crossroads now does: he&#8217;ll sell people a bill of goods for the sake of self-aggrandizement.