‘My sense is that we lost’: Trump campaign aides
grapple with dwindling odds
Only a small number of those in the president's inner
circle have adamantly encouraged Trump not to concede.
By GABBY
ORR and MERIDITH MCGRAW
11/06/2020
06:51 PM EST
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/06/trump-campaign-aides-reality-434785
Inside the Trump campaign’s headquarters Friday
morning, a painful reality began to sink in.
As senior
campaign officials huddled with attorneys to discuss President Donald Trump’s
legal options with his opponent closing in on 270 electoral votes, others in
the Virginia office building polished off their resumes and wondered when, if
ever, their candidate might concede. The president, who currently sits at 214
Electoral College votes, has refused to accept a potential election loss and
unleashed a legal offensive not seen in a presidential cycle since 2000.
But across
the office, acceptance was starting to take hold.
“Barring
any major cases of voter fraud or something drastic, this is over, and it’s
been over for a day. Most people are aware. Some folks are taking a bit longer
to accept it,” said a senior Trump campaign official. “There are a lot of
people just sitting and staring at their desks."
“My sense
is that we lost,” added a former Trump aide, who on election night and the days
after thought the president would win. The former aide said he shared Trump's
belief that pandemic-driven voting rule changes had negatively impacted his bid
for reelection, but said the president no longer has a viable path to victory.
“It’s an
uphill battle," this person said.
Trump's
dwindling circle of believers comes at a critical moment for the president’s
legacy, which his allies fear could be permanently tarnished if he presses too
long with a court battle that plunges the nation into political crisis and
fails to yield his desired result. Only a small number of those in the
president's inner circle — namely former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and
advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie — have adamantly encouraged Trump
not to concede.
The bleak
atmosphere that has taken hold inside Trump’s campaign operation reached a new
level Thursday night, after the president convened a last-minute news
conference from the White House briefing room to falsely insist he won the 2020
election and further amplify unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.
His appearance was followed by Democratic challenger Joe Biden taking the lead
in Pennsylvania and Georgia early Friday morning, putting him on a path to the
presidency, as well as calls from top allies to furnish proof of legitimate
voter fraud.
“If you’re going to say those things from behind the
podium at the White House, it’s his right to do it, it’s his right to pursue
legal action. But show us the evidence,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
said Friday on ABC News. “This kind of thing, all it does is inflame without
informing and we cannot permit inflammation without information.”
Christie
also accused the Trump campaign of lacking a clear legal strategy or leadership
as top surrogates and Republican attorneys laid out their cases in haphazard TV
appearances and disorganized press conferences.
“One of the
things you’re seeing here is the absence of Don McGahn,” Christie said,
referring to the former White House and campaign counsel. “This race was just
as close in 2016 and you never saw any mayhem because there was a legal
strategy laid out.”
On Friday
afternoon, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien and senior White House adviser
Jared Kushner installed Bossie, a former Trump aide and veteran GOP operative,
to spearhead the president’s legal quest to review vote counts in a handful of
key battleground states where he lost by thin margins or appears poised to
lose. But as Bossie and other Trump aides fanned out across Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania
and Arizona this week to unveil their legal challenges, some of the president’s
closest allies privately described a protracted legal battle as an exercise in
futility.
“Obviously
with Georgia and Pennsylvania there is a lot of headwind against us, but at
this point it’s a legal operation and we’re exhausting every available thing to
us,” said one adviser to the Trump campaign.
A second
adviser to the campaign suggested a court battle is unlikely “to swing things”
in Trump’s favor but could form the basis of the president’s eventual
concession, which Trump aides universally agree will flout tradition.
“He’s going
to say, ‘They stole it from me,’ and then he’s going to go to Florida and
continue to be the most influential Republican in the country,” said the second
campaign adviser.
Trump’s
reluctance to admit defeat, which would amount to a sign of weakness in the
president’s playbook, left some of his aides concerned about the transition of
power that must happen before the presidential inauguration in January and the
possibility of a fruitless lame-duck session if he remains fixated on the
election outcome and the fate of his campaign’s lawsuits. One of the advisers
to the Trump campaign suggested that the president might refuse to meet with
Biden and avoid his inauguration but was unlikely to interfere with the
government transition.
“I do hope
the president can abandon his focus on legal stuff long enough to engage in
stimulus negotiations,” said a senior administration official. “We have an
opportunity to get stuff done and it should not be drowned out by the noise
Trump and his lawyers have been making.”
But the
campaign’s focus on recounts and legal challenges isn’t the only distraction
that could overshadow or derail a bipartisan Covid-19 relief package in a
lame-duck session. With the election outcome still hanging in the balance,
public frustrations and finger-pointing among Trump aides began to surface on
Friday.
In a tweet,
former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale gave a backhanded compliment to
Hannah Castillo, who ran the campaign’s Latino outreach program and oversaw coalition
operations earlier this year. “She should get credit for an amazing job!”
tweeted Parscale, who was fired in July. “Too bad she wasn’t there the last
couple months.”
Shortly
after, news broke that Parscale, who spoke to the president daily as chief of
his campaign and has been a trusted friend of the first family, planned to join
the ranks of ex-Trump aides who have cashed in with tell-all books.
Meanwhile,
Donald Trump Jr. lashed out at Republicans — including rumored 2024 GOP
hopefuls — who had not yet come to his father’s defense on Trump’s
evidence-free claims of illegal vote counting and a rigged election. Just
minutes after the younger Trump issued a scathing call for backup, former
United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and others
chimed in. In a Fox News appearance Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said
he would contribute $500,000 to the president’s legal defense fund to pursue
challenges to vote tabulations.
There were
also lingering frustrations over Fox News calling the race for Arizona on
Tuesday night, as other election forecasters and media outlets held off on
declaring Biden the clear winner of the traditionally red state. The
president’s supporters have unleashed a torrent of criticism against the conservative
news outfit since Tuesday night, when the network’s decision desk declined to
reverse its early call on Arizona.
“In the
court of public opinion, it looks bad and it sways a lot of the commentary,”
said one adviser to the campaign. “Then you’re fighting two battles — the vote
count and the court of public opinion.”
The Trump
campaign has repeatedly signaled that it is preparing for a lengthy battle in
the courts, even if Biden remains in the lead or crosses the 270-vote
threshold, giving him the presidency. On a call with top donors — which the
campaign said was its largest ever — officials said they need to raise “tens of
millions” of dollars to pay for upcoming legal fees.
Anita Kumar
contributed to this report.
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