Fleischer: Trump is Throwing Out a Winnable Race
Former White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer, weighed in on why he sees the Trump campaign message as focusing on the wrong opponents.
“He has to start making Hillary his opponent, not the Khan family, not a judge who is an American from Indiana, this is his problem: He’s focused on the wrong people,” Fleischer told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.
Fleischer raised concerns that the narrow window of opportunity for Trump to change his message and focus on Hillary Clinton could hurt the candidate come November.
“He has had two terrible weeks in a row in a campaign that only has 14 weeks left. This is math and it’s timing and if he does not get better at message discipline he will turn out to have been the biggest loser that he can imagine. He’s throwing out a winnable race.”
Fleischer then pointed out that Trump missed an opportunity to take on the Obama Administration and Hillary Clinton over the state of the U.S. economy.
“Think about last Friday when he was given the golden opportunity – the United States government validated everything Donald Trump’s been saying. The economy grew at a 1.2% clip for the quarter, slowest recovery since 1949,” But, Fleischer continued, “Does Trump immediately pounce on it, does he make that the message of the day, does he call Hillary ‘1.2% Hillary’ and make the case [that] this is why incomes are flat, this is why there is income inequality, this is how come people can’t pay their college loans? No, he’s still fighting about the Khans.”
Fleischer then had one final tip for Trump before the Republican candidate’s campaign becomes damaged beyond repair.
“Stop counterpunching, you’ve gotten to be such a good counterpuncher you’re about to knock yourself out.”