Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, who was the former Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, gave an eye-opening assessment of Donald Trump’s political “movement” to a stunned ABC News “This Week” panel on Sunday.
“But I have to say something because, George, I’m old enough to say this. I’ve seen two movements outside of the social justice movements in my life on the political side,” she said.
“One was the Reagan movement. Reagan had a hold on his base. The country at large, they saw him as someone who was willing to stand up for American values, whatever that might have meant,” she noted. “Now I thought it was reactionary.”
“The other movement I saw was Barack Obama, hope and change,” she went on. “That galvanized the American people.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this with Donald Trump,” she added. “I mean, what doesn’t kill you make you stronger? I mean, being convict — I mean, being indicted, that’s making him stronger? Raising $10 million using an ugly mug shot to raise money? This is a movement.”
“And anyone who thinks that you can apply the old political rules to try to defeat this candidate based on… he’s scary, he’s ugly, whatever you might want to call him, this is a movement,” she said. “And we have to respect the fact that it’s a movement.”
Reihan Salam, who said that Trump supporters are “strikingly unified,” also gave his assessment about Trump’s “shrewd” campaign.
“I’ll also just note that he’s been incredibly shrewd and discipline when he’s focused on the political,” Salam said. “This week, for example, he was trying to appeal to UAW members to talk about, for example, this effort to transition away from combustion engine vehicles.”
“Now, that might not sound like a very wonky thing, but that’s what he’s very focused on and disciplined about when he’s campaigning,” he added. “And I think for a lot of people, they feel like the talk about litigation — you know, these various charges, they consider that noise that is baked in, and when he’s focused on the issues, he speaks in a very accessible way that could be meaningful in a general election.”
A new Wall Street Journal poll shows a presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump would be tied with Trump leading the Republican field by 46 points.
