Former Fox News Host Gretchen Carlson (YouTube Screengrab)
Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson had very clear suggestions why President Donald Trump is carousing and doing rallies in safe Republican states like Alabama on Friday — and it has everything to do with cowardice.
With only 32 days left in the mid-term, Trump appears content to visit Republican stronghold states over brutal swing districts — and even formerly safe GOP districts — where Republican candidates could conceivably use a boost.
But Carlson’s beatdown began with a question from CNN anchor Erin Burnett on whether the seemingly oblivious president appears to know how badly national voters are turning on him in polls, and whether or not she felt the polls were overblown in their bad tidings.
“I think the general sentiment is that the polls that are being done internally [at the White House] are worse than those that are external, so I would tend to believe them. But … it's unbelievable. I think, for Americans to try to comprehend that in just two short years, Trump took a silver platter that the American people gave him to run with this economy. And many people believe that he has run it into the ground, instead, in a short two-year time period. And why he's in Alabama tonight is because he's welcome in Alabama. There's a ton of red states where he might face boos right now. So that's why he's not going there to those places.”
Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Independent Veterans of America, said there was no benefit to Republicans with Trump in a place like Alabama, but he said Trump’s visit did serve up a dose of self-dealing propaganda.
“There are no known competitive races in Alabama. Does this help turnout anywhere else? No. But it helps perpetuate an image. He's in Alabama because he wants to be in Alabama. And Donald Trump does whatever he wants,” said Rieckhoff. “… He's there because he wants a home field advantage. It is a big crowd. [Republican Sen.] Tommy Tuberville loves him and is one of his most loyal advocates. And he's setting the stage for what can be used for a content grab.”
“They're setting the stage and then they're running it into the propaganda machine, which is literally state funded,” Rieckhoff continued. “They now have the vehicles of power to run whatever they want through a state funded, government funded propaganda. And that's really what this is. It becomes a self-perpetuating propaganda machine. Or in the military, they would call it a ‘self-licking ice cream cone.’ It just keeps itself going for its own purposes.”
Like Carlson, Rieckoff said most of America doesn't like Trump, and that “especially in swing states, [Republican candidates] don't want him, but they want his money.”