Doing focus groups for the last three years trying to understand what was going on with voters inside my own party, and one of the things i learned was that voters had reservations about donald trump, especially women, even if they voted for him. They did not like him, and a lot of their 2016 vote had more to do with disliking Hillary Clinton than liking donald trump. I have been thinking for a long time about how do you move those voters from Donald Trumps column in order to defeat him in 2020, and that is we found that is why we founded Republican Voters against trump, because we needed to hear from other Republican Voters who just could not do it anymore in terms of voting for donald trump. If you go to our rep website t. Org you can see that there from000 testimonials people who voted for trump and 2016, but they are doing little testimonials that talk about why they cannot support donald trump in 2020 and will support joe biden, and for people who have been culturally, privately, or politically republican, is a real move. Tell,he stories that they they are very compelling, and what we do with the stories is that we make sure that other Republican Voters, soft trump voters and collegeeducated voters make sure that we see the have the testimonials because we are trying to build a new tribe, a tribe of republicans who cannot support donald trump in good faith. Host we want to talk to Republican Voters. The phone lines are little different. 2027488000 if you are a republican who opposes President Trump. 2027488001 if you are a republican who supports President Trump. All others, 2027488002. In, we knowalling President Trump likes to talk and tweet about his Approval Rating within the republican ruetersriters had a had a poll recently on job approval and had a 92 among republicans approving of the president s job performance. How me Republican Voters against trump do you think are out there how many Republican Voters against trump do you think are out there . Going onere is a lot in those numbers. A lot of republicans are out on the party and have already left. If you look at pew has the registrations of people who identify as republicans and democrats, that has been dropping because donald trump is actively tricking the party. The other thing is that you cannot actually win a National Election with just people who were registered republicans. You need independence. A lot of these rightleaning for georgets voted w. Bush but they are looking at donald trump and saying i am for keeping the government out of our lives and lower taxes, but i cannot support this person and they are more than happy to say, joe biden is fine, i can vote for joe biden. For donald trump, when he brags about these numbers, what he is areng is all the people who tribally republicans are still in on me, but it is not a big enough group to win an election and there is a lot of people he has driven out, and i am one of them. Host who is olivia troye . Guest olivia troye was the lead staffer on the covid19 task force. She was the main liaison for mike pence. The covid19 task force and she was his top staffer. Last night she released a video through our organization talking about what she saw while she was on the task force, and it is a moving story because olivia is clearly a person who went into this job because she wanted to protect the lives of americans. That is everything that she has done in counterterrorism, she was in the department of Homeland Security, what she wanted to do was protect americans, and she says while working on the task force, they were trying to help americans navigate the task force the pandemic and donald trump was making their job more difficult, going out and downplaying the pandemic at the same time they were trying to take the pandemic seriously. And so, she is the third trump official who released a video through Republican Voters against trump. , a first was myers taylor chief of staff at Homeland Security. He tells till chilling stories about trying to get the president to Pay Attention to things like the wildfires in california only to have the president say i do not care about that, those people are not my base. Newman, the head of counterterrorism and i am sorry, she was chief of staff there. And, she talks about one of her main jobs was fighting the rise of White Supremacy and domestic terrorism and how much her job was made harder by Donald Trumps rhetoric. It is about average voters creating structures to help doer voters move over and Something Different than they might normally do, but it is also about creating a space for republicans who want to speak out about what they are seeing in this administration, and letting america know what is going on in their, and olivia is the latest person to do it. She led all of the news last night because she is the First White House official to calm out and talk about what she saw. What she is saying totally comports with what we have heard from things like Bob Woodwards book with the case of donald trump knowing how serious the virus was but deciding to play it down for what looked like political reasons. Host i want to play about one minute of that testimony that she released through your group last night. [video clip] troye, i was a Homeland Security and advisor to Vice President pence and i had been on the Covid Task Force from day one. The virus was unpredictable and there was a lot of unknowns. Towards the middle of february, we knew it was not a matter of if covid would become a pandemic in the United States, it was a matter of when. The president did not want to hear it because his biggest concern was we were in an Election Year and how will this affect his record of success. It was shocking to see the president saying that the virus was a hoax and saying that everything is ok when we know it is not. The truth is that he does not actually care about anyone else but himself. He made a statement once that was striking that i never forgot it because it defined who he was. When we were in a meeting the president said maybe it is a good thing. I do not like shaking hands with people, i do not have to shake hands with these disgusting people. Those disgusting people are the same people he claims to care about and the people going to the rallies today who have complete faith in who he is. [end video clip] host it is available at rvat. Org or on twitter at rvat2020. I want to ask you about President Trumps response. He was asked about olivia troyes comments in that video as he was outside of the white house yesterday. Heres about a minute of what he said. [video clip] pres. Trump i do not know her. She was on the task force as some kind of lower level person. I have no idea who she is, i have never met her to the best of my knowledge. Maybe she was in a room. I have no idea who she is. She does not know me. It is just another person who leaves, and whether it is cnn or say Washington Post they negative things. We have a letter from her that is absolutely the most beautiful going away letter. She was terminated, they did not want her. She has nothing to do with me. I do not know her, i never met her. She may have been in a room or something, but i never met her. Mike pence told me about her and said she left. Then, sheer go, and wrote a beautiful letter, as i understand it, a letter praising the administration, but then the people got a hold of her and said let us say bad things about donald trump, the same thing about miles. I never met him, he has gone. I have no idea who he is. This is a big government. Every time some believes government, 99 of the time i will not know who they are. Is a almost like it personal thing with me. [end video clip] host on the comments from yesterday . Guest first of all, he is not telling the truth. She was not fired, she left because of what chief saul, the letter she was talking about, she wrote a nice letter to the task force who she thinks is doing important work and who she was honored to be a part of the work. Her criticism and she certainly does not mention donald trump in the letter, she is not praising him, her point is that they were trying to do something important and donald trump undermined what they were doing at every turn, whether it was finding important doctors or refusing to focus and Pay Attention and be focused on whatever Tucker Karlsson had said the night before. And so, look, he can say every single one of these employees at have left is trouble, but some point, there are so many of them, i am talking about john kelly, and now we are talking about multiple other officials. You know what, of course they were in the room. Himselfs pictures of with the president. The president says the same thing every time. Do not know them, they were disgruntled. None of them bears out, and at some point they are telling the same story, and he cannot keep brushing them all off. Host i will let you chat with a few of our callers starting on the line for republicans supporting President Trump. Mary and dallas, texas. You were on. Caller yes. I have a lot to say. I have never been so disgusted in this election as to see what this president has gone through. You can call yourself a republican, maybe you are a republican establishment candidate, or a democrat in disguise. Im going to tell you what. The division in this country is not caused by him, it is caused by the rhetoric, being called racist. What has been done to the people who support trump. You know what, i will tell you one thing. After this, i said i might be done voting, and i have been voting a long time, and i said i am getting disappointed with the ublican party, and i said when you look about when you talk about division, msnbc and cnn will not put on trump, so all of the viewers do not even get a true story of what he has talked about. Also, i can say may god bless this country because we all need to vote for President Trump, and a whole bunch more come out in support. Host that is mary in texas. Guest i have been a republican my entire career, and heres the thing. As a republican there are a bunch of principles that matter to me. Matters, foraw example, and never have we had so many people surrounding the president who have gone to jail and been indicted. Never, andpt, i have my adult life or in the time i have been alive, seen a president who cozies up to dictators the way this president does. And, turns on our allies. I have never seen a president with the Economic Policy where he runs up the debt, and this is happening before the pandemic, who have trade deals that defy a free market. I do not just oppose the president. I oppose him as an american, but also as a republican. Values not reflect the of conservatives and republicans. I understand, he has people who like him and believe that he is a victim in some way, but if you spraytch him turn pepper bullets on Peaceful Protesters that caused fourstar generals who worked in his administration to call him a threat to democracy, if you can watch that and still say this man deserves another four years, we have a difference of opinion. A conservative, when i was coming up as a young person, bill clinton was the president and we talked about character mattering. And, morality mattering. Thandonald trump has more 20 Sexual Assault allegations against him, a new one came out this week. We have heard the things he has said about women, and minority groups. Id, i am not making it up, hear it with my own ears and he tweets about it. I have very deep political differences with some of the folks on the democrat side, but when you tell Democratic Congress woman of color to go back to the places they came from when they are american citizens, both of whom were born here, there is not many other ways to interpret that, and i am not saying that we were not divided before donald trump. I think division has gotten worse, but donald trump stokes those on purpose for his own political end. And i think it is important for americans to come together and say that we cannot have this person another four years. Host what is the future of the Republican Party look like in january 2021 if President Trump does when and if he does not . Then iif he does win, think you will see the divisions get much deeper. Will have aook, he hold on the party. His takeover of the Republican Party will be total and complete , and i also think that democrats will have to think about a few things as well. Because of donald trump wins, it is the second time that there is a repudiation of democrats at a time when it really looked like that was not going to happen. Will havek democrats to do soulsearching about how do you win National Elections. Republicans would become a trumpy party. And full on, there is no coming back from it. It would be a populist, nationalist, party. If donald trump loses and joe biden wins, especially if he wins by a lot, and gets a thorough repudiation of trump and trumpism, then i think there is an opportunity for the Republican Party, as it does sometimes when it is out of power, to go back and do its own soulsearching and think, ok how are we going to win and have a big enough coalition. Lot, it is by a because he lost the College Education collegeeducated suburban voters and he lost women at historic margins which is all the polling shows. The gender gap has turned into a chasm. If he loses those people, the republicans, if they ever hope to be in power will think how do we get some of these people back and how do they change the party to do that . Winning and losing causes for the bothngs parties to rethink how they are doing things. I am conference concerned about the future of the Republican Party. There was a poll about people who wanted she would want for the 2024 nominee. Donald junior came in second and mike pence came in first. I think that is a strange for a party that felt like it was rejecting political dynasties and one of the reasons that jeb did not have a shot was because we are over political dynasties. John don jr. Is the future of the Republican Party, that i think that is a concerning thing. Pennsylvaniaout of on the line for republicans opposing President Trump. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am definitely opposed to President Trump. I do not think he is helping the country at all. Weaker,try isw we sicker, and poorer. In four years am i better off today . The answer is no. Absolutely not. And he acts like he is not accountable to nobody, he has above the law. When you pledge allegiance to the flag, i vote for a president , i do not vote for a dictator. And you wonder how adolf hitler got into office in germany and talk to those people into doing horrible things. You can see trump, he is like adolf hitler and the making, and people do not see that. Host how do you feel about hitler comparisons . Guest i think we should be careful about exactly i think never if this worth is this worth comparing people to hitler because it was a uniquely horrible situation, but when talking about his authoritarian tendency, that is fair game. You have a president who has suggested that perhaps we move the date of the election. He has told people that perhaps, they ought to vote twice. He is undermining democracy at every turn by saying that the election is rigged if he does not win and casting doubt on mailin ballots. Suggesting that he needs a third term in office. These are all things that in normal circumstances, donald trump has lulled us into a weird phrase where he says crazy things that normally would set heyseven alarm fires over this guy is threatening the constitution and he sounds crazy, but everybody is never quite sure how serious he is. Isalways acts like, maybe he joking or Something Like that, but he absolutely is he does not respect the rule of law or the constitution, or the thoughts and values of this country. Now, i think he also does not seem to have much of an aim in terms of what he wants to do policy wise. Dictators other have a really negative thing that they want to do, some horrible thing. Donald trump does not seem to have any ideology beyond he wants power for himself. Host the pushback that you talked about has come in the form of ill boards in pens billboards in pennsylvania and advertisements as well. That costs money. Where does your funding come from and how much are you planning to spend in the next 50 days . Let total right now for what we have raised and planned to spend is about 23 million. We are running most of that digitally, some on tv and we are inng billboards pennsylvania, arizona, and north carolina. We have expanded our campaign into florida. Where we get the money is from all over the place. We have thousands of donors. We have been lucky in so many small dollar donors that have started us that have helped us once our campaign caught traction. We have raised millions of dollars from small dollar donors , and then our donors are people democracy. Out raised a lot of money and we are spending it all in the service of hoping to beat donald trump in 2020. Host Anonymous Sources on twitter saying if you are supporting the democrat candidate and campaigning against the republican candidate, you are not a republican voter. That is like saying and i am a Miami Dolphins fan but i hope the new york jets kick their butts twice this year. Guest people say this and say you are not a real republican. You are supporting joe biden. They can save i am not a real republican, it does not matter to me. My policy beliefs lean more conservative, i also think that i am an american first before i am a republican. And i see unique dangers posed by this president. And, as an american, my political identity does not matter as much as my american identity. I think donald trump is a threat , and frankly i think he is destroying the party. I think that he has shrunk the party, i think that he has put a whole bunch of republican senators in peril. It is a real chance that donald trump loses the election as well is a wipeout of senators, so i do not think that he has been good for the party. People comparen it to sports teams, it is a good comparison and it is funny because this is not night like a sports team. In sports teams the stakes are not high. You can have a team and have team loyalty, that is not what politics should be about, it is we aredeas and about how talking to each other about policy and a totally different thing. When you see something going off the rails and something that is actively dangerous to say, just because i am on the team i have to support it when it is something that threatens your country, that does not make a lot of sense to me. Host 15 minutes left with sarah longwell. The group is Republican Voters against trump and you can find them on rvat. Org. If you want to have a question or comment the phone lines are open to do so. This is jean, a republican supporting the president out of maine. Good morning. Caller good morning, i have been listening to this lecture for quite a while, and i just want to say that one of the things that the lady mentioned was how many indictments and lawsuits that have been brought against trump, and i would like to say that accusations and indictments, these are not facts. These are things brought about by political enemies and trump has a lot of political enemies. I also noticed that she said, i do not know whether it was about herself or someone else, people seem to know what trumps sink is thinking. They know that but they are not democrats and they are not sure what to do, they feel like they should support the president , because they are republican, so just talking to people and letting them know where you stand is important. Host wayne is a republican opposing President Trump out of illinois. Caller good morning. Host you are on. Caller sarah, you might as well be a democrat, because the way you are spewing the hate about mr. Trump is not fair. I voted for hillary in 2016. When President Trump won by the electoral vote, not by the popular vote. Now, all of a sudden the democrats want to get rid of the Electoral College. That is a strange twist. And i know there are a lot of things that mr. Trump has said that people do not agree with, and maybe he has divided the country. Host are you supporting the president in november . Caller i have not made up my mind, but i have looked at some of his policies and ive seen where they have made a difference in the black caucus by helping black colleges and giving millions of dollars to these universities and helping people who are less fortunate than ourselves. Host wayne, in illinois. Sarah longwell. Guest well, here is the thing. So, this is a theme, saying why do you not just go be a democrat . For example, there are plenty of policies i do not agree with, one is abolishing the Electoral College and filibuster which are things that i like because i am more temperamentally conservative. I find it interesting the way so many Trump Supporters when their posture is not let me try and convince you about why you should vote for this person is, go be a democrat. Part of what happened is because a lot of people have gone and done just that. The Republican Party been shrinking because rather than trying to build a broad Political Coalition among people who might agree on policy and having a more uniting tone and being a president who governs responsibly and takes threat seriously, you know, if he had done that, and look, i did not support him in 2016, absolutely not. But when he was elected, there was a period where i was like, what could i do and maybe he could rise to the occasion. I thought that for two minutes before you saw quickly that that was not how he was going to govern and he was not going to be a president for all americans, just for republicans and is divisive. I am looking for somebody who is committed to the foundational notions of this country in terms of the constitution and rule of law, and also who is trying to unite us. Even by virtue of joe biden saying i want to be the president of all americans, i want to hear that from somebody. We are at a dangerous place where we are so angry, divided, and polarized. On one hand we have a president who tries to throw fuel on that, and on the other, you can talk about what certain people on the left are doing, and i am opposed to a lot of those things. But also, joe biden speaks and every more progressive person as the most moderate candidate with the exception of perhaps mike bloomberg. And, has overwhelming support to do it. So i think that i am pleased that joe biden is the democratic candidate, because i was opposed to donald trump. Obviously i am a very opposed to donald trump. The other caller who said i do not know what i do if it had been bernie sanders. Joe biden is a good person who i think is genuinely interested in trying to bring us back together as a country, which is more important than any one individual policy position. Host moses out of lake elmo, minnesota on the line for all others. Good morning. Caller i have a couple of quick questions. First and foremost, the constitution is protected by the supreme court, so donald trump will not abolish the supreme court, so i think you can relax. Did you support the iraq war . Guest i was 21. Caller ok, did you work for the Mitt Romney Campaign . Guest i did not. Caller did you work for the Mccain Campaign . Guest i did not. Caller but you are a republican strategist. So you did not support trump in 2016, is the Republican Party like a john kasich, do you support that guy . Guest i like john kasich. Caller ok, fine. So when he pledged that he would support the republican candidate for president , he hosted the Republican Convention and he did not show up and support him. Is that the kind of republicans, these 20 who do not like trump, is that what you stand for, going against your word . Politics is about power and money. How Many Supreme Court picks did john mccain get, or mitt romney . Host sarah longwell, go ahead. Guest i do not think politics is just about power and money. At all. I think it is about how people chooses to govern itself and what its values are. I think that i am not quite sure what the kasich point is. But, if we are against lying or not keeping our word, i would hold john kasichs record against Donald Trumps any day or twice on sunday. There were a lot of republicans that did not show up like ted cruz who got up and did not endorse donald trump. He just said, about your conscience. Vote your conscience. Because, all of these people including Lindsey Graham were saying this guy is a con man, this guy is dishonest and will destroy the party. I think they were right then and i think they are not correct now. There are lots of republicans who would have happily supported any other republican on the stage, but not donald trump. The point is, donald trump won because he got to do what he wanted. And so he got to do what he wanted. I think the question is can he win this time. There is no doubt that the country was more opposed to Hillary Clinton and they were willing to take a risk on a guy who was a political outsider, and unknown. Not a majority, but enough for an Electoral College standpoint. The question is, will that happen again or will donald trump create a magical shrinking Republican Party that cannot build winning Political Coalitions again. Host time for one last call. This is tiny on republican supporting the president. Texas, go ahead. Caller good morning. I am really very disturbed about everything that is going on. Especially, never trumpers, it was never republican like mitt romney. Donald trump has done so much for america has spoken what a lot of people in america feel. We have been sold out not only by the Democratic Party, but the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is a party against the people of america. They are not for america. Anytime you support anyone who says it is all right to murder a baby in the womb of to the ninth month and you can support someone like that, in time a party says, no, god does not care who you love, but he cares about who you marry. I cannot support someone who does not stand for the word of god. And joe biden, he has never been for the black race, he has always been against it. As far as black lives matter and in tivo. And i have been watching what is been going on in this United States, it reminds me of the kkk and sends me back when we had to get on the back of a cotton truck and leave mississippi from the burning, looting, and murder of black people. And you can get people to support this party and urge people to say to go back to their own nation. You have people in the house of representatives and their job is trying to destroy and bring the United States down to its knees. So i do not to be a china, russia, or iran, i want the United States. Yes, we have terrible things that have happened, but i am speaking as a black woman who has suffered through racism. That is what i am speaking of, and i know racism when i see it. Host sarah longwell, we will give you the last minute or so. Guest i also do not want to be china, or russia, or any of the other places led by dictators that donald trump sucks up to too often. I also say what i say because i believe strongly in america and i love the country. And i think donald trump has been bad for the country. Look, heres the thing. I am not questioning anybodys patriotism and i think we can disagree on politics and that is ok. Nobody has to agree with me and i can think that i am the political establishment, i am a Mitt Romney Republican because i think that guy has good morals and he is a decent man, and he would have made a great president. So, there are a lot of people who think we need a different version of the Republican Party and it is not a version i am interested in. I did not work for mccain or romney but i think their vision for the Republican Party was considerably better than what we have now. And, you can question whether or not i am a republican, but i am doing what i believe to be right and saying what i think is true and that is all you can expect for everybody. Host sarah longwell, founder of Republican Voters against trump, rvat. Org and on twitter at rvat2020. Host good friday number two. Weekly claims for job benefits were seasonally adjusted to 860,000. That is down 33,000 from the week before. New applications have lilac shall he held steady