Karl Rove: The Trump campaign needs to hit ‘reset’
Fox News contributor Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff, tells ‘America’s Newsroom’ a presidential address could reset the Trump campaign.
President Trump needs to hit the "reset" button ahead of the Republican National Convention in August, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove said Friday.
In an interview on "America's Newsroom" with host Leland Vittert, Rove explained that a potential reset doesn't mean a "staff shake-up," but it does mean the necessity for "something that's big and grabs the attention" of the American electorate.
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"When you are in the barrel. When you’re getting a lot of bad press and the polls are going against you, you need to do something that says, ‘We’re moving in a different direction.’ That’s what I mean by a reset," he said.
"But, it doesn't mean a staff shake-up. You know, the replacement of one person as a chief operating officer of the campaign with another one is not going to change anybody’s opinion," the Fox News contributed continued. "So, you have got to do something that's big and grabs the attention of the American people and says, ‘This is either a big new policy or a change in tone or direction.’ And, that's a mechanical thing."
"You can't simply say, ‘Well, we’ve got bad polls and we’re getting bad press.’ You’ve got to say, ‘OK, we’ve got to do something different,'" he added.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this week, Rove warned that after a less than stellar June, the campaign needs "a presidential address on new policy initiatives or a significant change in tone that allows the White House to say credibly that the country is moving in a new direction, repositioning the president."
According to Rove, a "bold second-term agenda" is the key to the president's re-election come November.
"The last three presidents who won re-election used their acceptance speeches to convince voters they had something new to offer," he wrote.
"No president gets re-elected by saying, ‘I’ve done a good job,'" he told Vittert. "You have to be in a place where you say, ‘I’ve done a good job and I've got more things that I want to do and those are things that you like.’"
"And so, [the] point of my column was to say: ‘You’ve got to do a reset. Come up with something.’ But, more important than that, is the president needs to be ready by the time that he appears at the Republican National Convention -- the third week of August, on August 27th, to accept the nomination of his party," Rove said.
"He has to have a bold agenda that he lays out for a second term and that he can contrast with Joe Biden. And, he ought to hold off on a lot of the new stuff that he wants to talk about until the convention. Because more people are going to be paying attention at that time than at any other time except the debates," he said. "But, he does need to begin to contrast with Joe Biden now on big issues."
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"I think what people want to hear at that moment is an optimistic view of what can be done," Rove concluded. "What are the challenges we, as a country, [are] facing and how are you going to overcome them?"
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