Donald Trump’s Republican allies are reportedly plotting an “intervention” to save the embattled candidate from making any more unforced errors that could prevent him from beating the weakest Democratic presidential nominee to come along in a generation — Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Fox News is reporting that campaign staff, Republican leadership and even Trump’s own children are concerned about the candidate’s recent missteps out on the campaign trail.
The effort includes party boss Reince Priebus, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
NBC News first reported that the figures are looking to meet with Trump in the coming days to discuss a possible reset, hoping to involve Trump’s children in the effort.
Fox News is told that while some are pushing for a meeting, the “intervention” may end up consisting of a series of phone conversations with the candidate. But there is no question supporters want to get the candidate back on message about Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration’s record.
According to Fox News in the report below, an unnamed Republican official said that “they are not convinced that Trump isn’t just basking in the limelight of these big public events and at the same doing things to ensure that he doesn’t become president. That’s the point that this has come to. That’s how perplexed senior Republicans leaders are.”
There are actually a lot of Republicans out there who believe that Trump is only in this to help his (former?) friend Hillary Clinton.
According to the Washington Post, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is worried that Trump is in danger of throwing away the election unless he quickly changes course.
“The current race is which of these two is the more unacceptable, because right now neither of them is acceptable,” Gingrich said in a Wednesday morning telephone interview. “Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.”
Gingrich said Trump has only a matter of weeks to reverse course. “Anybody who is horrified by Hillary should hope that Trump will take a deep breath and learn some new skills,” he said. “He cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now. She can’t be bad enough to elect him if he’s determined to make this many mistakes.”
Scott Reed, a veteran Republican operative and chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told WaPo that “a new level of panic hit the street” and that “it’s time for a serious reset.”
Reed, who managed Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, recommended that Trump “stop doing silly interviews nine times a day that get you off message” and deliver a major address seeking to reset the campaign establishing himself as the change candidate.
“Trump needs to do a little message discipline 101 — give a reset speech on the stakes of the election, the weakness of the economy and take it to Hillary,” Reed said. “He needs to get back on offense.”
On Wednesday morning, ABC News reported that senior officials in the Republican Party were preparing a contingency plan in case Trump decides to drop out of the presidential race. According to ABC political reporter Jonathan Karl, if Trump voluntarily backed out, 168 members of the RNC would have to pick a new candidate by early September.
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