The Dems are playing
The Democratic National Committee is launching billboards in 10 locations across Milwaukee on Friday featuring former President Trump’s reported diss of the city that’s the site of the Republican National Convention next month.
Why it matters: Trump reportedly used “horrible” to describe the city in the key swing state during his closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday with House Republicans, though his campaign and Republican lawmakers dispute this account…
But the Biden campaign and Democrats seized on the comments.
- Biden posted a photo on the social media platform X and wrote, “I happen to love Milwaukee.”
- Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers wrote on X, “add it to the list of things Donald Trump is wrong about.”
- Biden won Wisconsin by fewer than 21,000 votes in 2020 and his re-elect campaign is investing heavily in the the key battleground.
The billboards will run in 10 different locations across Milwaukee, the most populous county in the state and a Democratic stronghold, Axios has learned.
[…]
Donald Trump has made his contempt for Wisconsinites and their home clear,” DNC Deputy communications director Abhi Rahman said in a statement.
“The dislike is mutual – in 2020, Wisconsin handed Trump a one way ticket back to exile in Mar-a-Lago and sent President Biden to the Oval Office,” Rahman said.
“Trump hates Milwaukee because Milwaukeeans know exactly who he is – a sore loser who they’re going to make a two-time loser this November,” Rahman said.
The desperate scramble by Republicans to rationalize what he said tells the whole story. They know that Wisconsin is key. And they are freaking out about Trump insulting the state like this, especially since theb local news was all over it across the state:
“He was talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are,” said campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung.
In another statement, the campaign wrote that it was a “total lie” that Trump called Milwaukee a “horrible city.” However, they went on to add, “President Trump was explicitly referring to the problems in Milwaukee, specifically violent crime and voter fraud,” suggesting he did make comments about the city, just not in the way some were interpreting it.
The campaign then includes a series of tweets from Republican members from Wisconsin inside the room who agree with the campaign’s description that Trump was not making a blanket disparaging statement about the city.
Republicans — including those from Wisconsin — quickly jumped to Trump’s defense, insisting the former president was talking about crime and election security.
“@realdonaldtrump was specifically referring to the CRIME RATE in Milwaukee,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden posted on X after the meeting.
Rep. Glenn Grothman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Trump “was concerned about the election” and “felt we need to do better in urban centers around the country.”
Rep. Bryan Steil claimed on X that Trump “did not say this” in the conference meeting.
“There is no better place than Wisconsin in July,” Steil said.
He said it and he meant it. Just like he means the insults he makes toward any place or any person that doesn’t worship him. He hates most of America.