Earlier this week, President Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale was interviewed by Dana Perino on Fox News Channel. Parscale is credited with the digital campaign strategy that exploited Facebook and other social media, which was a significant contributing factor in President Trump’s 2016 election victory. Various media articles that describe what transpired during the 2016 campaign can be read on Parscale’s website here.
The focus of the interview was on the Democrats’ Star Wars bar scene and how those candidates match up with President Trump. Here is some of that Q&A, which gives us some insight into Trump campaign strategic thinking:
Perino: The President thinks the Democrat field is pretty weak, correct? Is that how you see it?
Parscale: I completely see it that way. I think as soon as any of them has to go against the President on policy and contrast, he clearly comes out victorious in 2020. They’ve been able to around in their little vacuum for the past year, and now as they starting to have to put up their policies against the President’s, it looks very good for the President.
Perino: Joe Biden talked about the President on “Morning Joe” [on MSNBC]. He had a little idea about how they could win. (played a video clip in which Biden denigrated Trump’s style and claimed that Democrats could run “Mickey Mouse” against him and win). It’s not going to be that easy.
Parscale: No, Biden bailed out [early] for South Carolina, and he’s got his own problems to worry about. A lot of Americans look up to the President and what he’s done for this country [contrary to what Biden claims].
Perino: Do you think that the media have prematurely written off Joe Biden?
Parscale: I don’t think he’s gone yet. I think he’s going to survive [for a while]. I think he has a little bit of a firewall down there [in South Carolina]. I think the media who say he’s gone … I don’t think that’s true yet.
Perino: Let’s talk about Mike Bloomberg. There’s this tape [in which he says that] he inherited the policy of “stop and frisk,” and he’s taken some heat for, and then there’s this. (played an audio clip about Bloomberg’s comments on stop-and-frisk in which he ascribed 95% of murderers to the male minority 16-to-25-year-old demographic in order to essentially justify frisking them all, whether implicated in a crime or not). What did you make of that?
Parscale: He’s in a difficult spot there – not all the money in the world can undo that. For 20 years, he’s supported this policy, but I don’t think it’s just this policy. I think it was how he was talking. It was very demeaning, the characterization of those in minority neighborhoods … I think he’s in a troubled spot.
Perino: President Trump had talked about the policy before. (played a video clip from a Chief of Police Convention in 2018 in which the President supported Rudy Giuliani’s stop-and-frisk policy) What is the contrast here?
Parscale: It’s not about this policy. Listen to [Bloomberg’s] comments. The demeaning … the characterization of those youths in the neighborhoods … how we have to send the police to these neighborhoods because that’s where the criminal elements are. The phrase, “we could xerox copy every minority child in these neighborhoods,” is a very moralizing thing; it’s not about the policy.
Perino: Mike Bloomberg says he’s apologized for it. He said he cut [stop-and-frisk] back 95% before he left [the mayor’s job]. …
Parscale: … He kept [the policy] for 19 years. This isn’t something you can do an apology for. I think the money is one thing, but he’s still [got to contrast his] policies with the President’s. The President’s not going to have any problem with these candidates.
Perino: Money can’t buy love.
Parscale: You can buy people to like you [sic]. Watch a Trump rally versus a Bloomberg rally. [Bloomberg’s] people look sort of lethargic.
Perino: New Hampshire is a state that President Trump lost by 0.4% in 2016. I know you’ve got a lot of data, and that you’re trying to find those new voters there that didn’t vote in 2016. Do you think that New Hampshire is a lock for you in 2020?
Parscale: I think New Hampshire is in a much better place than in 2016. It’s one of the first states like New Mexico that we can add to math of the 30 states we won last time. [Garbled] 17% who came to the Trump rally in New Hampshire didn’t vote in 2016. Those numbers take us over the finish line.
Perino: Is it true that if you show up to a rally, you’re probably going to show up to vote?
Parscale: Yes, there’s a 96.6% chance that if you show up for a rally, you’re going to show up and vote. Even more so if you donate $1 – it’s 98.4% chance of voting. Once you’re engaged, once you connect with us, and we have your data, we can talk to you, then the odds skyrocket up to vote. It’s impressive what this President has done to bring out the voters in 2020.
End of the Q&A. Brad Parscale is the Trump campaign’s “numbers guy,” and he’s got it down to a science. He also hit on the key parameter in 2020 although he didn’t come right out and say it, and that is the President’s charisma. He connects with voters the way that none of the Democrat candidates do, and the massive turnouts at his rallies are the living proof of that. And Parscale and his minions are always on hand collecting data and connecting with those rally-goers. Just like clockwork.
The end.
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