'Falling on deaf ears': Damning supercut shows Trump at odds with allies on how to beat Harris
Republican allies of former President Donald Trump are urging him to change course in how he's campaigning against Vice President Kamala Harris. But so far, he's not taking their advice.
That juxtaposition was illustrated in a recent supercut that CNN host Jim Acosta aired to begin his show on Wednesday. Acosta began the segment by explaining that as Trump's polling position continues to slide in critical battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, pressure is now increasing on him to revert to contrasting his policies with the Democratic ticket. Acosta aired several clips of top Republicans warning the former president that he would lose unless he changed his strategy.
"I want this campaign to win. But the campaign is not gonna win talking about crowd sizes. It's not gonna win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not gonna win talking about whether she's dumb," former UN ambassador Nikki Haley said.
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"Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position," former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) said in a Fox News interview. That clip was followed by one of top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway telling a Fox host that the path to victory for Trump was in dropping the insult-focused campaign and instead pivoting to a "policy contrast."
Acosta then noted that the advice from his allies is "falling on deaf ears," and underscored that by playing recent clips of Trump continuing to insult Harris' intelligence and question her racial background.
"Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't, because she's not smart," Trump told Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday night. "You know, she's not a smart person, by the way."
Acosta also included a clip of the ex-president at his interview with a panel at a gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists, in which he told ABC's Rachel Scott that he doubted whether Harris was actually a Black woman.
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"I didn't know she was Black, until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black," Trump said during the interview.
Trump will be campaigning in a swing state for the first time in approximately two weeks later today, speaking at a rally in Asheville, North Carolina. While North Carolina's polling is within the margin of error, Asheville is a notably liberal city in western North Carolina. The city has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in every election dating back to 2008.
Watch the supercut below, or by clicking this link.
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