Griot 🇧🇧🇯🇲🇺🇲

Erin Burnett: “trump bailing tonight, scrapping not one but actually two rallies in two different states. moments ago, dropping a campaign trip to iowa. the cnn poll of polls finds essentially a dead heat there. that's a state that trump won, by the way, by more than 13 points. and that iowa cancellation just breaking now, coming right on the heels of the president canceling a trip to kansas, where he was going to campaign for the embattled republican senator roger marshall. now marshall won his seat by more than 11 points in 2020, is now, of course, at serious risk of losing that seat to a democrat. the latest cnn polls show marshall trailing democrat adam hamilton by four percentage points there in kansas. now trump says he's going to hold tele-rallies this weekend instead of actually going to the ground. so when he was asked about it specifically, before we even knew about iowa, he was asked about kansas, why are you not going anymore? so the president told the reporter asking the question that the reporter was disgusting and looked like hell. look at this guy.” President Trump: “he's way out of shape. look at how badly he comes to me.” “sir, you're not going to go to kansas.” President Trump: “i'm not going to kansas because he's doing very well. we're going to do a tele-rally tomorrow. i'm doing florida.” “what's the reason, after doing what, 28. what's the reason for this, sir, that you're not going to kansas?” President Trump: “you know, the reason is i don't feel i have to go to kansas. i'm going to florida tomorrow, and i'll do if something else comes up.” “but you're not going to kansas, sir. are you feeling well? you've been following me for two weeks.” President Trump: “i feel perfect. you are disgusting. put yourself in shape. you look like hell.” Erin Burnett: “you are disgusting. put yourself in shape. you look like hell. of all the things trump said today, that's what the white house rapid response team clipped and proudly posted on x. and trump's decision to suddenly nix that rally in kansas seems to have caught roger marshall, as i mentioned, the incumbent that he was going to be something for, off guard.” “senator, any reaction to the president canceling the in-person rally this weekend?” Roger Marshall: “i'm not sure yet. i think they think they're doing so well in the polls that he's probably got better places to spend his time. not sure.” S.E. Cupp: “let's go through some of the reasons this could be. he's tired, we'd understand, and he's not making a ton of sense on the rally stages, right? the crowds are small. he doesn't want that optic. he's getting heckled at a lot of these rallies, and that's getting picked up. maybe people like roger marshall and ashley hinson said, no, we're better, maybe we're better without you in these closing. who knows? but none of them are good news. there are no good explanations, including his, that he's needed in florida. that's not any better. so none of the explanations are good. it's not a good look. i think the reality might be setting in that those two races in particular are probably set. they're set. they're locked. this is where they're going to stay. and if those are set and locked, i mean, what does it mean for everything else, governor?” Chris Sununu: “well, a couple things. i would read into kansas in particular. as you said, he was there three times in like the past week or week and a half, so they're plenty saturated. and as a candidate, i can tell you, in the last week, the base is locked in. you're absolutely right, s.e. the bases are locked in. you're going after those last undecided voters, and that's not necessarily, you know, where trump is gonna have.” S.E. Cupp: “nobody feels there's any of those left this time.” Chris Sununu: “oh, there's plenty left. i think especially in a place like kansas, where there's normally not a tough race, but now people like, oh wait, there's a race.” S.E. Cupp: “well, democrats are going after independents.” Chris Sununu: “yeah, oh, absolutely they are.” S.E. Cupp: “republicans seem not to be.” Chris Sununu: “well, and that's maybe the pivot here. hey, let's just, in a place like kansas, the numbers say we still have a decent undecided, that those aren't necessarily our base. let's pivot there.” Jamal Simmons: “yeah, listen, i think that what happened in kansas is that they got a poll back, because we're going into the last week. a lot of these campaigns, they do one more. they're seeing internal, right? because there's no reason to poll like after saturday, because there's nothing you can do. if you find out something, what are you gonna do? you can't buy more tv time. you can't do anything else. i bet you they got some numbers back that said trump is not helping. in fact, he's hurting, and they're trying to keep him away from it. and you got this side by side that's happening right now between donald trump and barack obama on the campaign trail, and i'm telling you, trump is not coming out well when you see the two of them mano a mano, the way many of us have wanted to see it for a long time. when you see the two of them together, trump doesn't come out. they're actually both, both, literally, i mean, literally, we're on the stage at the same time.” Erin Burnett: “david, what do you read into this?” David Frum: “i think we're looking at it through the wrong end of the lens. the question is not why is trump not suddenly not campaigning for these candidates. the question, why was he ever campaigning for them? okay, so normally when you have an unfavorable environment, 2006 for the republicans, 2014 for the democrats, a president who cares about his party says to at-risk incumbents, especially in the senate, look, you need to denounce me. you denounce me. you need to put, you need to make some space. go ahead. my feelings won't be hurt. this is about something bigger than myself. because of trump's malignant narcissism, he had to make himself the candidate in every one of these races, and he's not helping. well, in fact, he many times said, if i were on the ballot, this would all be great, because they want me. but if there were an environment where john cornyn had prevailed in texas, and john cornyn had been allowed to say, you know, i'll be with the president when i agree with him, but i'll be, as you've seen, i often disagree with him, that he might have a chance of holding texas. that's the stance he would take in a place like kansas, you know, with the president some of the time, other times, and meanwhile he's in washington. and in fact, i've even staged maybe some incident this year to show my independence. trump would not allow the republicans to do that, and he is dragging down people because of his pathologies, which i'm sure, i'm sure they would all wish the president never came in the first place.” Erin Burnett: “well, to you, maybe this is when you were saying, maybe it's roger marshall who was saying, i don't need you.” S.E. Cupp: “yeah, so, vivek ramaswamy, who ran that vile ad, yeah, and originally had a space to get out of it, sort of to say, well, i didn't know about it, and it was a pack or something. he could try to find a way. didn't. trump, you know, said it was great, and vivek tripled down, and now here we are. finally, it's no longer airing. the ad is no longer airing. and ramaswamy said at a campaign event today, is this your eight-year-old son? quote, it ran to completion, and we put up four other ads. you know, it just ran its cycle. yeah, right. no issue with it. i mean, they can say anything because nothing matters. but, no, if this were working, they'd keep it up. period. full stop. again, right, none of the explanations are good here, and these are politicians. they're gonna spin it. we should expect that. that doesn't make them crazy or unique, but no one's buying this, because we can all see. we've been seeing in real time the effect of an ad like that, the effect of the things that donald trump has been saying on the campaign trail. we're all ingesting it in real time, and we're watching the polls react.” Erin Burnett: “so, governor, you know, it was interesting. david frum said something there about, you would, you could even stage an incident. you would have something to show. i'm myself when i want to be myself. so your brother is running for senate in new hampshire. okay, and this is what i was saying. oh, that i love. i love this ad. it's my favorite ad of the whole cycle. okay, so we played it one night. it is one of our favorite ads, the whole cycle. okay, so here is part of an ad that your brother put out recently on this very subject.” “the way chris pappas tells it, i'm president trump's long-lost son. i've never even met the man.” Erin Burnett: “there you go. i'm so happy right now. so, trump didn't have to cancel a rally there because your brother made it clear he didn't need him.” Chris Sununu: “well, yeah, so, i mean, every state's different. maine, i would even argue michigan, new hampshire right now, you're trying to get that independent vote. and places like south carolina, iowa, kansas, texas, trump is going to go for the sole purpose of driving the base out. i think what they're finding, turning point usa is out there. they're knocking on more doors than ever before with the base, with the low propensity voter, the low propensity midterm voter. and what they're finding is a lot of those trump voters are like, yeah, i'm good. and so what they're trying to do is drive those trump voters out in a midterm that normally wouldn't come out. and that's why he's been focusing in these conservative states.” Erin Burnett: “so i don't want to, like, nose into your thanksgiving dinner.” Chris Sununu: “everyone else has.” Erin Burnett: “okay, okay, okay. no, but now i say that, and then i'm gonna do it. okay, so, you said if voters thought they were voting for you, and that your own brother hasn't asked you to join him on the campaign.” Chris Sununu: “oh, no, sure. so a couple things. that was people saying, well, you know, people are going to confuse the two. there's no way people are confusing me and my brother, right? so that's where the statement came from. and it's true. i, as an eight-year governor, i was in people's living room every night. everyone knew who i was. and it's a whole different dynamic. my brother's very independent. he's running his own race, as i ran my own race. he's on his own two feet. he's winning it with shoe leather. he's not relying on outside endorsements. anything he asked me to do, i would do. i love a problem. oh my god. no, no, no. and he's gonna win. he's, i think he and susan collins are gonna win.”