Trump Campaign Manager Chris LaCivita on Nikki Haley’s Criticisms, Trump’s Feud with Gov. Kemp

Chris LaCivita, Trump Co-Campaign Manager, joined Brian Kilmeade to discuss the campaigns game plan for beating Kamala Harris. LaCivita believes the question for voters to ask themselves is “Are you paying more or less for things now than you did four years ago?” LaCivita highlighted how much gas, electricity, groceries, baby food has risen since Harris has been vice president. When discussing Trump’s pledge of no tax on tips, LaCivita said the first proposal that Harris came out with was to basically steal Donald Trump’s plan. LaCivita pointed to how the media covered differently Trump and Harris pushing no tax on tips. With Trump, LaCivita said the media focused on how much it would cost and with Harris, all of a sudden the media says it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. LaCivita responded to Nikki Haley saying Trump and the campaign need to focus on the issues Americans care about and not Harris race or whether she is dumb. LaCivita blames the national media deciding what it is going to talk about rather than Trump answering questions and talking about inflation and where we are on the world stage and putting Americans in a better position to be successful. When asked if the relationship between Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Donald Trump can be salvaged, LaCivita said while he doesn’t get into this level of specifics, the campaign is focused on winning Georgia and believes the common bond of Trump and Kemp wanting to win in November is stronger than anything. LaCivita added, they have a very different operation in Georgia and do a lot of work with certain elements of Kemp’s team. Asked if their internal polling matches the Cook Report saying Harris is leading or tied with Trump in six of seven swing states, LaCivita responded, no and said how their swing state polling shows they still have an advantage in the Electoral College. LaCivita believes they have over 20 different paths to get to 270 and Harris has 2 or 3.
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Rough transcript here:

Brian Kilmeade [00:00:00] Chris. Welcome back.

Chris LaCivita [00:00:01] Brian. Thanks for having me. Good to be.

Brian Kilmeade [00:00:03] Back. All right. So, Chris, tell me the game plan to beat Kamala Harris. This is not totally a surprise to you. Even know what the RNC you look like, it looks like since the assassination attempt, that maybe Joe Biden was going to weather the storm. He didn’t. So Harris has been in for a few weeks now. What’s the game plan for victory?

Chris LaCivita [00:00:21] You know, it’s pretty simple. But you’re right. You know, post, you know, they, they after the, the, the attempted assassination of the president, and then the RNC convention, which was fantastic, highlighting all of the issues and the differences between essentially Republicans and Democrats, when you talk about inflation and the border and etc.. The Democrats, you know, essentially from a whole perspective, you know, instituted a coup. And be that as it may, they substituted, they gave, you know, obviously Kamala Harris is now the nominee. She’s picked, you know, for governor from Minnesota. Waltz. Who’s, who’s just. Yeah. I mean, I couldn’t even begin to figure out where he is on the spectrum as it relates to his, how liberal he is. But the press has given her a free ride. I mean, and everybody knows that it’s it’s been it’s been, you know, a few weeks without her answering questions. She went weeks without even having to answer questions. So they gave her a bit of a honeymoon. They’re now going into the Democratic convention where, you know, they’re going to try and put on the show. But look, it’s really. That’s pretty simple. That this morning, you know, the CPI came out and and the question that you have to ask yourself really is, is are you paying more or less for things now than you did four years ago? And that’s, that’s perhaps the singular biggest contract that exists between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, which is the state of the economy. And despite Covid and everything else that that was thrown in President Trump’s way, you know, he built the world’s greatest economy, then Covid wrecked it, then he did it again. And so, you know, that’s the single biggest issue contrast when you think about it, Brian, since Harris has been vice president, gas is up 51%, electricity 32%, fuel oil, 50%, airfare, 23%, hotels, 51%. Food. Groceries, over 21%. Baby food, 30%. I mean, the rent 22%. So, you know, things have exploded in cost. And, you know, while you have the Harris campaign and while you have the mainstream media, gaslighting the American people saying, oh, it’s fine, everything’s fine. Americans are hurting and they know that, and Americans are smarter than than, you know, the Democrats give them credit for. They’re not going to be played. We’ve laid out, I think, a pretty comprehensive, you know, economic plan. And when you think about it, that was reinforced by the fact that, you know, the first policy proposal that Kamala Harris came out with was to basically steal Donald Trump’s plan of no taxing on tips.

Brian Kilmeade [00:03:22] How do you feel about that? Because now they’re now Joe Biden’s for two, and they might even offer his legislation. Chris.

Chris LaCivita [00:03:28] Well, I mean, look, here’s the thing. Good politics makes good policy. And the Democrats are so desperate to avoid any responsibility for what they’ve created that they’re really they’re they’re literally willing to recast themselves in a very cynical attempt to fool voters. And, and it’s, you know, it’s just up to us to make sure that those they’re just not bought. I mean, you have to remember when President Trump announced this issue in June in Vegas, it was 109 degrees that day. I remember like it was yesterday. And he was roundly criticized by the press. You know, CBS news ran this headline, which was it will cost. You know, when Republicans want to cut taxes, that’s the only time the Democrats and the press talk about, how much it will cost. Something cost. You know, never mind the fact that that’s a cost to a refund to the American people. But, so roundly criticized the proposal, and, you know, it’s too expensive. It’s it’s it’s it’s a joke. It doesn’t make a difference, you know, now all of a sudden, it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. That’s a very cynical attempt to reshape and reformat things. But again, it’s up to us to make sure that people don’t buy it.

Brian Kilmeade [00:04:48] Gotcha. So, Chris, last of our guest, Chris is with Nikki. Haley was on. She doesn’t do much these days, but she was on with Special Report last night. Advice to you guys.

Speaker 3 [00:04:56] Cut to I want this campaign to win, but the campaign is not going to win. Talking about crowd sizes, it’s not going to win. Talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It’s not going to win. Talking about whether she’s dumb. It’s not. You can’t win on those things. The American people are smart. Treat them like they’re smart.

Speaker 4 [00:05:13] Do you think the campaign is missing the mark on those things?

Speaker 3 [00:05:19] I think the campaign needs to focus. That’s the main thing. Look, this is a winnable election, but you need to focus.

Brian Kilmeade [00:05:26] Your thought about that issue, right?

Chris LaCivita [00:05:30] Well, look, here’s the thing. If you look at what the national media decides it’s going to talk about, right, and decide what they want to emphasize. That’s, you know, they’ll pull that stuff out from five years ago, four years ago, three years ago. I mean, it’s it’s a it’s a losing battle. You know, when the president did his press conference at Mar-A-Lago, a little over a week ago and literally stood in front of the press, the entire press for an hour and took every conceivable question. None of those answers on the vast majority of those questions have have ever been talked about. I mean, he talked about inflation. He talked about where we are in the world stage. So, I mean, look, the focus of the campaign has always been about putting Americans in a better position to be successful. And it’s going to continue to be that way. And again, we’re focusing on these key issues of of, you know, illegal immigration. You know, I mean, Kamala Harris comes out yesterday, last night by some aides, some campaign person, and says she’s no longer for, Medicare for all. Yes. But it’s just that’s just a joke because there’s a ton of film with her talking about. That’s her number one policy proposal. So again.

Brian Kilmeade [00:06:51] But she’s going to say to you about Chris, Chris, Savita, you know, she’s going to say she evolved on that. She evolved on fracking. She’s about to do that Friday. I’ll give her first economic speech. So if she says she evolved on that, what is you what’s your counterpunch?

Chris LaCivita [00:07:06] Well, the counterpunch is. Can you believe anything she says? Because for years, up to now, she’s espoused these positions. I mean, she believes in giving Social Security benefits to illegal aliens. Now, if you’re a recipient of Social Security and you know how dire the trust fund is, are you willing and are you going to trust that Kamala Harris isn’t going to bankrupt Social Security and Medicare by giving it away to illegals? That’s an awful big leap for a lot of people.

Brian Kilmeade [00:07:41] So you got to walk away from Biden because you can’t have you can’t stand behind dynamics. At the same time, walk away from it while you’re still in the administration. It seems bizarre. And what do.

Chris LaCivita [00:07:50] You think is working according to. Right. Kamala Harris.

Brian Kilmeade [00:07:54] The Daily Mail says this. It says insider tells say that Trump behind the scenes at Mar-A-Lago, is upset about picking J.D. Vance, that he has regrets about it. Would you say, is there any accuracy to that?

Chris LaCivita [00:08:09] No. Zero? None. I generally don’t refer to British newspapers as my first place of information. I’ll say that. Number one. The number two. No, it’s it’s 100% not true. They talk 2 or 3 times a day, at least. JD has been fantastic in terms of letting the wood go waltz. And to Kamala Harris, he’s been out campaigning. He’s been a great partner. And no, there’s it’s just it’s fake news.

Brian Kilmeade [00:08:35] I think he was brilliant over the weekend on three network shows. Here’s here’s Peter Navarro fresh out of prison cut 15.

Speaker 4 [00:08:42] Trump doesn’t need fees now. He needs votes. And the current rally formula is simply not sufficiently focused on the very stark policy differences, policy differences between him and Kamala Harris. It will.

Brian Kilmeade [00:08:57] Swing voters.

Speaker 4 [00:08:58] In key battleground states.

Brian Kilmeade [00:09:00] So he says your rally formula isn’t working.

Chris LaCivita [00:09:04] Right. Well, I mean, look it again. It’s about what we talk about and what the focus is on the issues. I mean, a lot of people can say a lot of different things, but we’re about pushing very specific messages. Those messages. Peters. Right. About, about pushing policy differences. That’s that’s the number one goal of of the president’s the number one goal of the campaign. And we’ll take every opportunity we can to, to actually do that. Plus, you know, we also can’t forget that that, you know, this is also a game of turnout. And, you know, we have to make sure that our people are motivated. We’ve been engaged in efforts across the country with T 47 and our grassroots operations to do that. And, you know, look, it’s August, it’s the middle of August. And the Democrats swapped out their nominee, and they put in somebody else who’s never received a vote for president, who’s never really been tested. And, you know, we have plenty of time, and we’re in a very good position.

Brian Kilmeade [00:10:05] So interesting because now you have the DNC coming up and traditionally, and you’ve been doing this for a long time. Traditionally the other party goes kind of dark, but you only have 80 days, and you just mentioned all the unique challenges. What is the strategy during the DNC where they just going to bash Trump all day? He didn’t love it in 2016, I knew that. And now he’s not going to love it now. What’s your thought? Are you going to keep him from watching it? And what is your thought from, how do you get some press during that time? Would you even try?

Chris LaCivita [00:10:37] Well, first of all, you know, you don’t you don’t go to Donald Trump and say, don’t watch the I mean, the news, I mean, don’t watch the Democrat convention that that’s just that would never enter into the conversation. And besides, you know, people forget this is a guy who has built a very big, a very successful worldwide brand. So, you know, we value all of those things, but but this much I will tell you, we will not give the left one inch. We’re not going to give them one minute. We’re not going to give them one inch. We’re not going to give them one second of free time. We’re going to take advantage of every opportunity that we can create to ensure the American people know the differences and the vital differences between, you know, Donald Trump’s campaign and President Trump and Kamala Harris and the leftist Democrats, because the fate of the country we truly believe hangs in the balance.

Brian Kilmeade [00:11:33] So will you do press will you do you can. Do you have rallies, the elections over?

Chris LaCivita [00:11:38] Oh, we’ve got a battle plan and I’m I’m not going to sit and communicate it to the world today, but, but but it’s a very aggressive plan that puts us in a position to drive what we need to. I mean, look, if we spend the next week, spend the next two weeks talking about, you know, the differences in the price of gasoline, bread, food, you know, these types of things. And people have a clear and distinct understanding that if they vote for Kamala Harris, open borders becomes basic standard policy. The rise in crime continues to stay the same. You know, people are going to start worrying about personal security, national security and their economic security. And that’s what this is about.

Brian Kilmeade [00:12:23] Amy Walter of The Cook Report says Harris is now leading or tied with Trump in six of the seven swing states. Does he do your polling say the same thing?

Chris LaCivita [00:12:33] No. And as a matter of fact, you know, the the the the swing state polling, we still have an advantage, in the Electoral College, the map still does not favor. We still have over 20 different paths to get to 270. She’s got 2 or 3. And so, and and understand that, that in large part, they’re trying to redefine Kamala Harris as, as this new person who just showed up on the scene. And we have 12 years of information, 12 years of footage of her talking about eliminating, Medicaid, and Medicare, essentially giving illegals free benefits, taxpayer funded benefits from health care to, to schooling. And and then, of course, her record on crime, which is abysmal. So, you know, we we’re very confident in the plan that we have laid out.

Brian Kilmeade [00:13:33] So, I will I think it was about a week ago. It looks like President Trump was really ticked off at Brian Kemp again. I guess he was upset at Mrs. Kemp to, since that time, I saw that Lindsey Graham talk to him and he came out and he said, I’m going to help how I can, but the two aren’t talking. And Donald Trump said, I don’t know if it’s salvageable. You need Georgia Kemp, successful governor. What can you do to bring them together, or do you not think the relationship is salvageable?

Chris LaCivita [00:14:01] Well, I mean, I don’t get into this level of specifics. I just know this that, you know, the camp, the campaign, the president very much focused on winning Georgia Kemp very much wanting to win Georgia. And so I think, having the common bond of wanting to win in November is stronger than anything. We have a great organization down there. And we have some great grassroots leaders. I mean, how we’ve got tens of thousands of diehard Trump supporters that are knocking on doors and doing those key things. So, you know, and actually, Brian, they actually do a lot of work with, certain elements of the Brian Kemp, you know, Governor Kemp’s team. So, I mean, our focus has been, really the nuts and bolts aspect of campaigning. We have a very different operation down there, fueled by, MAGA nation in the state of Georgia. And, and so and we accept we accept help and assistance from anybody. Gotcha. So, you know, we’ll be going back down there. We’ve been on TV down there for a while. You know, I’m very, very bullish on Georgia.

Brian Kilmeade [00:15:15] Well, I’ll tell you what. Donald Trump’s got a marine who’s got his back. And I know you guys are going to fight through the finish. It’s a new challenge. But you guys, you’ve been training your whole life for new challenges. Alex. Great seeing you, Chris. Thanks for the time. I know our audience really appreciates it. I know you don’t do much, so we enjoy it. Thank you.

Chris LaCivita [00:15:32] Thanks. Take care.