Karl Rove, the architect of President George W. Bush’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, is reportedly advising President Trump on outreach to the black American community for the 2020 presidential election amidst riots across the United States.
A Vanity Fair report published Tuesday detailed Rove’s unofficial advisory role to Trump, which many staffers are objecting to:
Trump was already struggling to reboot his campaign when the gruesome Memorial Day video leaked, showing officer Derek Chauvin driving his knee into George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes as Floyd pleaded for his life. A day after Floyd’s death, Trump promoted two operatives into senior campaign roles, moves that were largely seen as a demotion for Trump’s embattled campaign manager, Brad Parscale. As protests and riots intensified last week, Karl Rove visited the White House to offer advice on appealing to African American voters, a source briefed on the conversation said. Rove’s new role as an unofficial adviser on Trump’s team rankled some in the West Wing and on the campaign. “People aren’t happy about Rove. He’s a Bushie,” the source said. “What’s he going to tell Trump? He’s stale.” [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News has reported, Rove has been spotted at the White House multiple times. His recent visits come as American cities face riots and mass looting from protests surrounding the police custody death of George Floyd.
In April 2016, Trump called Rove “such a dishonorable guy” in an exclusive Breitbart News interview. Trump’s comments were in response to a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Rove where he accused the then-presidential candidate of operating a vanity project rather than a policy-driven campaign.
“[Rove] shouldn’t be allowed to write for the Wall Street Journal,” Trump said.
For the 2016 presidential election, Trump won over more black American voters — eight percent to Hillary Clinton’s 89 percent — than former Republican presidential nominees Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
Bush won just one percent more black American voters than Trump in his run in 2000 against failed Democrat presidential candidate Al Gore.
Rove has been consistently opposed to Trump’s America First agenda. In 2014, Rove was a driving force behind the GOP establishment’s amnesty push. As late as 2018, Rove attacked Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, and in 2015 he justified his continued support for the Iraq War, which left nearly 4,500 American service members dead.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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