Playing down impeachment, Trump campaign voices confidence
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign on Thursday shrugged off the president’s expected impeachment less than a year before Election Day, talking up the campaign’s data collection efforts and declaring that no one in the Democratic field can compete with the incumbent.
With a House impeachment vote expected next week, the campaign stressed that polls indicate impeachment is unpopular with independents, particularly in battleground states. And the campaign declared that Trump may now have a glide path to reelection, though he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots in 2016 and captured Electoral College votes by razor-thin margins in three Rust Belt states.
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, was one of several senior campaign officials who briefed reporters Thursday on the state of the campaign. He said that when the reelection team looks at the Democratic field, “We don’t see anyone who can put together the Obama coalition. We’re on offense everywhere, and we’re very excited about that.”
Kushner, who was a Democrat before helping steer his father-in-law’s surprise victory three years ago, added: “I was not a Republican. Now I’m a Republican. I think the Republican Party is growing now that people like me feel comfortable being part of it.”
The strategy laid out is multi-pronged, including a focus on turning out supporters of the president who stayed home during the 2018 midterms; a robust data operation fueled by collecting information at the president’s raucous rallies; a volunteer-heavy and technology-driven organization far more professional than the low-budget 2016 version; and a commitment to expanding possible paths to victory by competing in 17 battleground states, including Minnesota, New Hampshire and New Mexico, where Trump lost last time.
A key to reelection: turning out the 8.8 million voters the campaign has identified as backing the president in 2016 and who still supporting him, but who did not vote during the midterms because Trump’s name wasn’t on the ballot.
