Transcripts For CSPAN Campaign 2020 Interview With Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Reporter Craig... 20240712

And if you missed any of our coverage, watch anytime ondemand at cspan. Org coronavirus. At the keyok battleground states in campaign 2020, we are joined here in washington with craig elder, the Washington Bureau chief for the milwaukee journal sentinel. As you look at ulysses and the covid19. Craig wisconsin is a divided state and also has a divided government with a republican majority in the legislature but a democratic governor. Growings been a lot of partisan disagreement and conflict over how to manage the pandemic between the governor and the legislature and wisconsin is a little unique in that we have this situation where a state Supreme Court with a conservative majority struck down the governors stayathome order. So, overnight lifting the restrictions that had been put in place and which were gradually going to be lifted anyway. The state of play in wisconsin. Wisconsin also had two elections. Host i want to focus on campaign 2020 that let us go back to 2016 with the results between then candidate Donald Trump Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. We are reminded about how close the race was. Less than one Percentage Points between the two of them. What were the mistakes that the democrats made and what did the Trump Campaign do right . Craig i think it had more to do with what the democrats did wrong. They took it for granted. They thought they had the upper hand. Thats not strange wisconsin had a close election because we had close elections forces and 2004 but the that went into that election were very rock were very odd. You had trump underperforming in some suburban areas. I dont second get i dont second guess the campaigns. I think you do have to secondguess the Clinton Campaign for not mounting a serious campaign. Berniet was a state that sanders won over Hillary Clinton in the democratic primary. After the start of the pandemic come it was an easy victory for the joe Biden Campaign. What do you attribute that to . Craig on paper, i think this could have been a good state for bernie sanders. Wisconsin has a progressive element within the Democratic Party in wisconsin that by the time the primary came around in early april, the National Picture had just entirely taking with joe biden command of the race. And voters across the country deciding he would be the nominee. We had the president ial primary in wisconsin that coincided with stateapril nonpartisan election. And by the end, this date election and it up commanding a lot more attention within the state and the president ial primary. Host when you look at the campaign, with President Trump traveling to the state on a couple of occasions and a lot of efforts by the democrats. What are you seeing on the ground . Craig we had joe biden do some Virtual Events in wisconsin. Early on, we had President Trump visiting wisconsin. Mark. S the big question and particularly in the case of the Democratic Convention which has already been pushed back from a july convention in milwaukee until august the week before the Republican Convention in charlotte. Have been much more openly flirting with the idea i mean, democrats have compared to republicans. We dont know how much of a physical convention there is going to be in milwaukee. Bethink at a minimum it will a heavily Virtual Convention but we dont know if it will entirely the remote are or little bit of both. Democratss clear why chose milwaukee as a Convention City but will they get any traction . Howg it is hard to know much of a payoff they will get from the convention itself. Part of the value of having a convention is for example building a volunteer army around the convention and it is hard to do that if it is not a traditional convention attracting thousands and thousands of delegates and others to milwaukee. And the symbolism the symbolic value of having a convention in milwaukee, a city where democrats underperformed and wisconsin, a state they let slip through their hands in 2016. A midwest industrial battleground. This embolic value of that is probably not as great if you do not have a traditional, physical convention in milwaukee and if it is a mostly remote event. Alsouestions there but we know the democrats are not going to repeat the mistakes of 2016 when they neglected the state. They are going to fight for their lives in wisconsin. Host if you look at the democratic and republican this stage. In green bay and racine strong for the republicans. Where else are you looking . Wisconsin thing about is it does not fit all of the stereotypes we have nationally. We have educated, collegeeducated, welltodo suburbs around milwaukee that in another stay in the National Context you might think of as being democratic leaning that are republican leaning in wrapup in wisconsin. He also have a history of a that arete areas divided, red and blue. The question is will the rural democrats swing back to the democrats after voting for donald trump and 2016 and whether some of the suburban republicans will perform better for donald trump after not performing well in recent cycles. That is a big part of the drama in wisconsin. Host over the years, a big part of the campaign is a grassroots efforts. Knocking on doors. Making telephone calls. This will be a Different Campaign with covid19. How do the parties adapt to the changes . Alreadyhey are adapting. We have our jihad to elections in wisconsin during the pandemic. We had a big, major judicial election which basically was almost a partisan election in reality. We also had a Congressional Election in northern wisconsin. One thing that has happened is this date, overnight on the fly have converted to heavily male voting mail voting. The parties have already adjusted to the notion that a huge amount of their vote will mailst via absentee ballots and they are organizing around there. There are political controversies around that. Theyre having to shift their operations to digital organizing from facetoface organizing. Host if you could, give us a snapshot the state of the Trump Campaign manager campaign and the state of the Biden Campaign in wisconsin. Craig if you take the most reliable pollster in wisconsin the marquette school, they and joe bidenmes is about 2. 5 points ahead of donald trump which is smaller than bidens lead in the national polls. That tells you how competitive the state is. If you look at perceptions for donald trump, it is basically 5050. Disapproval. 49 this date is perfectly divided. It has all of the ingredients of a down to the wire state closeng this is a national election. And each party has a political challenge. Democrats need to do a better job of getting out the vote in milwaukee and they need to try to win back some of those purple girl communities that swung to trump and trumps challenge is showing up for the republican vote in the suburbs. Two election cycles, the weakest in wisconsin. Lessons was the big dont Pay Attention to the national polls. The stateme down to polls in wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Craig one of the remarkable things about the state polling in wisconsin is how little the numbers change from month to month. If you think of all of the things that have happened, and impeachment, the pandemic, and economic crisis. Month by month, the numbers dont change very much. Joe biden would go ahead a little bit of donald trump. His Approval Rating is invariably in the high 40s. 27 or 48 , talking about President Trump. That tells you how stable the race is in many respects and that again is kind of a formula for a very competitive and may be somewhat unpredictable november. Host does that surprise you . Perspective it does given the volatility of the real world. From another perspective, no. In the sense that we have seen polarized wisconsin is and how doug in people are, their partisan tribes. Wisconsin a good example of that when you have each partys voters overwhelmingly supporting their candidate, they are equally enthusiastic about the election at this point. The voting blocs are the same size. There is not a lot of play in the numbers. There is a small band of independent, noncommitted voters and one of the things that was decisive in 2016 was the voters that disliked both candidates swung to donald trump. Whether they will vote the same way again in 2020 is a big question. The Craig Gilbert is bureau chief here in washington for the milwaukee journal sentinel. Thank you for being with us. Craig great to be with you. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, House Foreign Affairs Committee Member Florida Republican congressman ted yoho discusses u. S. Relations with china during the covid19 pandemic and tensions regarding hong kong. Talks about his organizations efforts on behalf of workers directly affected by the pandemic. And dr. Marshall bloom, associate director for Scientific Management at the nih rocky mount laboratories on the investigations of infectious diseases. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern friday morning. Join the discussion. President trump announced an executive order for social Media Companies and user content posted on their platforms. Here are his remarks. President greatest earl speeche you know what is going on as well as anybody, its not good. A small handful of powerful monopolies