A Republican pollster blasted President Donald Trump’s primetime address about election fraud as “stupid,” lamenting that swing voters don’t want to hear about the issue.
Trump bragged that his Thursday night speech received “great reviews” and drew in a “big audience,” while simultaneously complaining that several major TV networks decided not to broadcast the full remarks live.
While some strategists in Trump’s camp believe that talking about voter fraud could motivate his base to turn out in the midterm elections in November, other Republican pollsters have complained that the message turns off swing voters, according to Axios.
“It’s a stupid, stupid move,” the unnamed GOP pollster, who has worked on several campaigns, told the outlet.
Trump has refused to drop his baseless claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” and used his address to allege the election system is “dangerously” exposed to “hacking, exploitation and foreign interference.”
The GOP consultant tested Trump’s 2020 “stolen election” messaging in focus groups, where it reportedly didn’t land.
“Even swing voters who think something wasn’t good about the election, when they listen to Trump, just have an eyeroll,” the pollster said.
In Trump’s 23-minute speech, he accused China of meddling in the 2020 election to ensure his defeat to former President Joe Biden. He suggested that Beijing may have been involved in the “manufacture of illegal ballots” and paid journalists to write negative stories about him.
He also claimed that “deep state” actors within the U.S. intelligence community had withheld crucial information from his daily briefings, all without providing substantial evidence to support his accusations.
Reflecting on the president’s address, a White House official told Politico that the speech was “as on the rails as possible.”
“The senior team just talked and prepped him. I think they explained the way to be taken seriously is not to be crazy,” the person said. “There was going to be a lot of crazier s*** said.”
The outlet concluded that despite the president’s usual bluster, the address was a “pretty vanilla, sneakily boring policy speech” in a bid to move the needle on the SAVE Act, requiring citizens to provide paperwork such as passports and birth certificates to vote in elections. The bill currently lacks the support it needs to clear the Senate.
Trump claimed his speech received glowing reviews, but did not specify who from.
“Great reviews on speech last night,” he posted Friday morning on his Truth Social platform. “Big audience. Pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!!!”
The president blasted ABC and NBC for not carrying the speech live on their primary channels, though the networks did broadcast the address on their online streaming platforms. CNN did not broadcast the full speech live.
Elsewhere, Fox & Friends made no mention of the president’s address Friday morning, according to Mediaite.
