‘Who Does That?!’ CNN Data Guru Absolutely Destroys GOP for Scheduling ‘Trump-apalooza’ Convention Against Blockbuster NFL Game
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten warned President Donald Trump the first-ever Republican midterm convention is likely going to be a dud.
Why? Because the conservative voters Trump is trying to galvanize are more interested in pigskin than politics.
Enten jumped on CNN News Central on Wednesday morning and said the two-day convention was stupidly booked at the same time as the first two NFL games of the season, with the defending champion Seattle Seahawks taking on the New England Patriots in a Super Bowl rematch on Wednesday night, followed by the Los Angeles Rams playing the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night.
The data guru couldn’t believe the GOP made such a scheduling boner.
“Who does that? My God?” Enten vented, while waving his hands in disgust.
He pointed to some July polling data which showed 60% of Democrats are “extremely motivated” to vote in the midterms, just slightly ahead of MAGA voters at 59%.
That is not the problem for Trump, though, according to Enten, who said the GOP should have been laser-focused on winning over the 41% of non-MAGA conservatives.
“It is not in fact the hardcore Republican base that needs that motivation, it is other folks that this convention, simply put, won’t be reaching, because they’ll be watching football, like Most Americans,” Enten explained.
Host John Berman followed up by saying the convention has been unofficially billed as “Trump-apalooza,” with the president set to speak on both Wednesday and Thursday night. But Enten said that isn’t going to matter much.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, let’s focus in on Donald Trump!’ But in fact, the people who are the least motivated to vote are the folks who are the most likely to disapprove of Donald Trump,” he said.
Enten isn’t the only one who has scoffed at the GOP convention this week.
James Carville on Tuesday said “no one” he has talked to believes it is a good idea, and the veteran Democratic strategist went as far as claiming he believes Trump is trying to sabotage the Republican Party as payback for party leaders not supporting him, apparently.
“He hates them. He wants to torture them,” Carville said. “He thinks that he saved them, he taught them how to win, they turned their back on him and he’s going to teach them a lesson.”
Despite the naysayers, Trump insisted on Tuesday the convention is “HOT!” in a post where he urged GOP lawmakers to save the stage for candidates in tight races.
Enten reiterated he doesn’t think it will move the needle much at the end of his segment.
“This whole idea is ill-conceived, and you can see it right from the very forefront, because the bottom line is, I think a lot more people will be interested in watching your Patriots,” Enten told Berman.
Watch.
Jason Cohen contributed to this story.
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