Trump senior adviser: ‘We’ve always assumed that we would lose Wisconsin’
By Alex Bregman
On Friday, April 1, Donald Trump’s senior campaign adviser, Barry Bennett, joined Yahoo Finance Anchor Alexis Christoforous on “Yahoo News Live” to discuss the GOP frontrunner’s week that was and the campaign’s road ahead.
Looking to the April 5 primary in Wisconsin, where Trump trails Sen. Ten Cruz in some polls by as much as 10 points, Bennett did not seem concerned about a potential loss in the Badger State. He told Christoforous: “We’ve always assumed that we would lose Wisconsin. So there’s nothing great at stake.”
He said the stakes are much higher for Cruz than Trump: “We want to win Wisconsin very much. It is a do-or-die state for Ted Cruz for sure, because if he doesn’t win Wisconsin and win all 42 delegates, then mathematically it’s impossible for him to become our nominee.”
On Trump’s week that was — which began with his campaign manager being charged with simple battery, followed by his controversial comments on abortion, and ended with a much-talked-about meeting with Republican National Committee leaders — Bennett said simply: “It’s been a fine week. This is a presidential campaign. Every week seems like this week.”
Did Trump learn anything this week? Bennett told Christoforous: “I think Mr. Trump learns something every day.”
On Trump’s meeting with RNC leaders, Bennett said, “The meeting was designed to talk about how Mr. Trump could help the party and vice versa. Once we get through this primary process, the party is going to have to raise a lot of resources to help our candidates across the country in all kinds of races, and we want to make sure that we’re doing our part to do that.”
Bennett dismissed concerns about Trump’s electability in a general election given polls that show Gov. John Kasich is the only GOP candidate beating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Bennett’s response: “John Kasich has not experienced $100 million of negative advertising against his name, which is why he is doing so much better than everybody else. That’s sort of fool’s gold. Donald Trump is well-positioned as an outsider who wants to turn Washington on its head.”
Bennett also dismissed any concerns voters might have about Trump’s foreign policies. “Voters in this country are concerned about things like the southern border — not only controlling immigration, but controlling the inflow of heroin into our country. They’re concerned about the economy, because they’re working harder and making less. They’re concerned about a government in Washington that who piled up $19 billion on the backs of my children, your children, all of our grandchildren through their irresponsible fiscal ways. That’s what the voters care about. Nuclear policy and all that stuff is a good news sound bite for a day, but it wouldn’t even list in the top 100 things on voters’ minds across the country.”
