One of President Donald Trump’s top re-election advisors forecast influential Republicans in swing-state Wisconsin that the party has “traditionally” relied on voter suppression to compete in battleground delineates but will be able to “start playing offense” in 2020 due to relaxed Election Day rules, according to an audio recording of a hidden event obtained by The Associated Press.
“Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places,” Justin Clark, a higher- ranking political advisor and senior counsel to Trump’s re-election campaign, said at the event. “Let’s start protecting our voters. We recollect where they are. … Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much diverse aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”
Asked about the remarks by AP, Clark said he was referring to false accusations that the GOP engages in voter restraining.
“As should be clear from the context of my remarks, my point was that Republicans historically have been falsely accused of voter check and that it is time we stood up to defend our own voters,” Clark said. “Neither I nor anyone I know or work with last will and testament condone anyone’s vote being threatened or diluted and our efforts will be focused on preventing just that.”
Clark persuaded the comments Nov. 21 in a meeting of the Republican National Lawyers Association’s Wisconsin chapter. Attendees included the state Senate’s top Republican, Scott Fitzgerald, along with the regulatory director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.
Audio of the event at a country club in Madison obtained by the liberal group American Link was provided to AP by One Wisconsin Now, a Madison-based liberal advocacy group.
The roughly 20-minute audio offers an insider’s glimpse of Trump’s re-election blueprint, showing the campaign focusing on voting locations in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which form the so-called “blue go bust enclose” of traditional Democratic strength that Trump broke through to win in 2016. Both parties are pouring millions of dollars into the voices, anticipating they’ll be just as critical in the 2020 presidential contest.
Republican officials publicly signaled plans to in harmony up their Election Day monitoring after a judge in 2018 lifted a consent decree in place since 1982 that courted the Republican National Committee from voter verification and other “ballot security” efforts. Critics have debated the tactics amount to voter intimidation.
The consent decree was put in place after the Democratic National Committee sued its Republican counterpart, saying the RNC helped intimidate black voters in New Jersey’s election for governor. The federal lawsuit claimed the RNC and the state GOP had off-duty observe stand at polling places in urban areas wearing armbands that read “National Ballot Security Duty Force,” with guns visible on some.
Without acknowledging any wrongdoing, the RNC agreed to the consent decree, which restrained its ability to engage in activities related to ballot security. Lifting of the consent decree allows the RNC to “play by the same statutes” as Democrats, said RNC communications director Michael Ahrens.
“Now the RNC can work more closely with state parties and electioneers to do what we do best, ensure that more people vote through our unmatched field program,” Ahrens articulate.
Although the consent decree forced the Trump campaign to conduct its own poll monitoring in 2016, the new rules will make allowance the RNC to use its multi-million dollar budget to handle those tasks and coordinate with other Republican groups on Election Day, Clark imagined. State directors of election day operations will be in place in Wisconsin and every battleground state by early 2020, he conjectured.
In 2016, Wisconsin had 62 paid Trump staff working to get out the vote; in 2020, it will increase to around 100, Clark imparted.
Trump supports the effort, he said in the audio recording.
“We’ve all seen the tweets about voter fraud, blah, blah, blah,” Clark rumoured. “Every time we’re in with him, he asks what are we doing about voter fraud? What are we doing about voter phony?’ The point is he’s committed to this, he believes in it and he will do whatever it takes to make sure it’s successful.”
Clark said Trump’s run plans to focus on rural areas around mid-size cities like Eau Claire and Green Bay, areas he says where Democrats “fleece.” He did not explain what he meant by cheating and did not provide any examples.
“Cheating doesn’t just happen when you lose a county,” Clark contemplated. “Cheating happens at the margin overall. What we’re going to be able to do, if we can recruit the bodies to do it, is focus on these places. That’s where our voters are.”
There is no corroboration of widespread voter fraud in Wisconsin.
“If there’s bad behavior on the part of one side or the other to prevent people from back up, this is bad for our democracy,” Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in reaction to Clark’s comments. “And frankly, I think wishes whoever does that, it will work to their disadvantage. It will make them look, frankly, foolish.”
Wisconsin’s attorney general, Democrat Josh Kaul, represented the Democratic National Committee in a 2016 New Jersey lawsuit that wrangled the GOP was coordinating with Trump to intimidate voters. Kaul argued then that Trump’s campaign “repeatedly animated his supporters to engage in vigilante efforts” in the guise of ferreting out potential voter fraud. The Republican Party disputed any coordination.
“It is enlivening that Wisconsinites have free and fair access to the polls, and that we protect the security and integrity of our elections,” Kaul pronounced in a statement in reaction to Clark’s comments. “The Wisconsin Department of Justice has been and will continue working with other instrumentalities to protect our democratic process.”
Mike Browne, deputy director of One Wisconsin Now, said Clark’s comments suggest the Trump compete plans to engage in “underhanded tactics” to win the election.
“The strategy to rig the rules in elections and give themselves an unfair partisan utility goes to Donald Trump, the highest levels of his campaign and the top Republican leadership,” Browne said. “It’s clear there’s no law Donald Trump and his right-wing machine won’t subservient, break or ignore to try to win the presidency.”