Trump’s Plan to Take Away Biden’s Biggest Advantage

from The New York Times I'm Michael. borro this is the. [Music]. daily over the past week Donald Trump. has systematically dismantled the. Republican National Committee my. colleague Shane goldmacher reports that. in doing so Trump is trying to take away. President Biden's single biggest. advantage in this year's president.

[Music]. centu it's Tuesday March. 19th Shane can you just describe what. has been happening over at the. headquarters of the Republican National. Committee I mean it's been a gutting I. think in a period of about 10 days the. party has gone through really almost. unpre eded turmoil entering a general.

election Fox News Alert the New York. Times is reporting tonight that RNC. chairwoman R McDaniel is set to step. down from a role it starts with the. former chairwoman of the party R. McDaniel McDaniel released this. statement quote it has been the honor. and privilege of my life to serve the. Republican National Committee stepping. down now I'm stepping aside today. because I have long promised to put the. nominee and their plans for the RNC. first because she's faced pressure and.

unhappiness from Donald Trump to stay. his chair Trump then chose the head of. North Carolina's Republican party. Michael Watley to take McDaniel's place. it continues with Trump picking his hand. selected pick for who he wants to run. the party Michael Watley is the new. official RNC chairman here just 8 months. from the general election Watley. chairman of the North Carolina. Republican party is a strong Trump Ally. which includes his daughter-in-law Laura. Trump Trump's daughter-in-law Laura. Trump also named RNC co-chair who's now.

been elected as the co-chair of the. Republican party to be honest with you. it's not a job that I ever wanted or a. job that I ever really thought I would. pursue but I also never thought that our. country would be in such Dire Straits. and and we truly are I think in the. first real full day that the Trump team. has keys the headquarters in Washington. DC they arrive with mass layoffs wide. layoffs and they really uh go farther I. think than many people at the arm and.

see were expected were told more than 60. people were either fired or told that. they no longer had their job they had to. reapply to keep their job in a single. day that blindsided some longtime RNC. staff one of whom told reporters gutting. a committee just before the election. seems insane these layoffs just to put. it in perspective is something like. nearly a third of the total staff that. the party has is around 200 people are. on the payroll and about 60 got this. kind of a message political now. describing it as less a shakeup more a.

blood bath and it's not just like the. number of people it's the heads of. critical departments the political. Department the Communications Department. the data Department this is a fullon. remaking of the RNC in Trump's image. there's going to be guys very little. daylight now between the Trump campaign. and the Republican National Committee. and so look there's always turnover when. a new candidate takes over the party it. is normal to send a couple of your. senior staffers over and it's a landing. party and you shake things up and maybe.

you remove somebody or you layer the. people who are there with somebody you. prefer this is really an unusual level. of change to been implemented a top to. bottom house cleaning. yes so why Shane is Trump doing that. gutting the leadership and so much of. the staff of the most important. apparatus within the Republican party. right now well I think you and most of. your listeners know that we start this.

general election in a race that Joe. Biden is behind he's losing in the polls. voters have concerns about his age they. have concerns about his handling of the. economy they have concerns about his. handling of immigration some of the most. important issues that voters say matter. to than this year but the one big. Advantage entering this general election. that Joe Biden has is the sort of. infrastructure mechanics of running for. president they have had a 10mon head. start on Donald Trump in hiring staff in.

raising money in preparing for the. election that's now upon us and so for. Donald Trump he looked at what existed. at the RNC and he said this isn't good. enough interesting this isn't focused on. what I think is going to matter and I'm. going to get rid of these folks and I'm. going to put in my own team my own. imprint from the party chairman down to. the sort of foot soldiers in the swing. States we're a clean housee and start.

over and it's a pretty big bet it's a. pretty big bet that he thinks that by. deconstructing the Republican National. Committee he can construct something. better and it's a race well before we. get to why Biden has an organizational. apparatus advantage over Trump and why. Trump felt the RNC needed to be burned. down and rebuilt Shane help us. understand what a Party Committee like. the Republican National Committee what. role it plays in a presidential race I.

think everyone understands that there's. a campaign and there's a little less. Clarity around exactly what the party. committees do in a campaign I mean. they're absolutely essential to a. successful presidential campaign one of. the big reasons is just money which is. the party and the candidate can together. raise vastly more money than just the. candidate can why so the way campaign. contributions work is there are strict. limits for federal candidates stes so.

Donald Trump can raise something like. $6,600 from an individual but Donald. Trump when working with the RNC and. state Republican parties across the. country can form this sort of Mega. committee and that committee can raise. something closer to. $800,000 from that same individual so. the scale you get when working with the. party is just incomparable to working on. your own so hundreds of millions of. dollars will flow through the Democratic. National Committee and through the.

Republican National Committee so the. number one reason that the party matters. is money mhm there's also institutional. knowledge knowledge in local States and. there's a whole bunch of smaller things. including whether you send mail and how. you do various things that parties offer. efficiencies but the number one thing is. cash that Donald Trump and Joe Biden by. being linked in with the party which he. couldn't do until he becomes the. presumptive nominee gives you an. enormous cash pile that you can access. from big donors got it so with that. understanding walk us through the.

advantages that the Biden Camp has with. its relationship to the Democratic. National Committee and the disadvantages. that it feels like Trump has with the. current version of the RNC that he's now. gutting well we talked about how much. bigger checks that Donald Trump can now. raise well Joe Biden's been raising. those checks for months and months and. what that means is that the Democratic. National committee and Joe Biden in.

their joint efforts and they are very. much joint efforts they just announced. that they have $155 million in the bank. as of the end of February now the Trump. team hasn't announced a number for. February yet but at the end of January. the Republican National Committee had. less than $9 million and the Trump. campaign had around 30ish wow and I have. to think it's safe to assume that the. Trump campaign and the Republican Party. did not make up a more than $100 million.

deficit within the last month yes that's. right in fact it's more likely that the. Democrats have an even bigger financial. advantage now than they had a month ago. and so this money issue is just really a. big daunting one for the Trump team at. the beginning of this election and. something that the Biden team not only. do they have that cash Advantage they've. been spending more money along the way M. so look right after the State of the. Union you can see the it and money.

pretty clearly with the prot trump super. pack announcing its first ad buy of the. general election which is something like. above. $300,000 on black radio it's a symbolic. ad by they're going to Target. African-American voters who are. potentially moving toward Trump and then. the Biden campaign says they're. announcing their first ad buy and it's. $30 million over six weeks this is a 100. to1 ratio like money isn't everything in. some way it's especially less important.

in a presidential race cuz voters pay so. much attention compared to like a house. race or a senate race even but if you. gave any candidate a chance to have a. 100 to1 advertising ratio at any point. in an election cycle you'd take it you'd. absolutely take it okay so the first. really important thing to understand. here is that Democrats and the DNC are. just completely out fundraising Trump. and the RNC absolutely that is the First. Advantage okay what else the second one. I would say is sort of the actual.

infrastructure of a candidacy and look. there's a moment this last week where. Joe Biden was starting to travel to. these swing States and he went to. Wisconsin one of the closest and most. important swing states in the country. arguably one of two of the most. important swing States in this election. absolutely and what was he doing he was. helping celebrate the opening of some. offices in Wisconsin Biden and the. Democrats are opening 44 offices wow in. the state and the contrast is that the. RNC and the Trump team are giving layoff.

notices to the people who might be based. in Wisconsin and they have to reapply. for their jobs right does an office win. you votes maybe not a ton but in a race. that could be tens of thousands 10,000. votes in some of these states 44 offices. you start to do the math and like each. person in that office wins 50 votes in. the next six months or gets 50 people. out to vote like it actually starts to. make a difference in these really close. races and when you talk to the Biden. team and you talk to the Trump team they.

agree that the Democrats have an. advantage here and by the way it's not. just Wisconsin that's just one example. this Cascades across most of the Swing. states where Biden has already built out. an entire team in Pennsylvania in. Georgia in Michigan and the Trump team. are are starting from scratch right okay. so money and infrastructure are the. clear Biden advantages that Trump is. looking at with some envy and when he. looks at the RNC with some dismay yeah. we've talked so far about the National. party right the Republican National.

Committee and the Democratic National. Committee now every state has a state. party too which is related to the. National parties yes to a certain degree. absolutely money flows back and forth. between them but the state parties are. independent right they're supposed to. elect the governors of those States and. the senators of those States but these. swing state parties are really focused. on the presidential election and it just. so happens that the Republican party has. deep problems in some of the most. important state part parties in the.

country such as let's start with. Michigan which has probably been the. messiest situation the former chairwoman. of the state party Christina kuramo had. misspent money so much so that the party. executed a coup against her and. overthrew her wow the incoming party. chairman at one point was getting locked. out of his emails there was a dispute. over whether he was in fact the rightful. chairman it's gone to court it's been a. whole big legal fight the House. Republicans had sort of sent money down.

to this Michigan party a few months ago. saying we've got some really important. house races in Michigan and that. Michigan Republican party spent it on. other things and House Republicans are. like what are you doing they sent this. letter that was just in legal terms like. really a crazy letter saying you are. blowing our money it's like you don't. even want to elect Republicans what are. you doing so like Michigan that's one. state let's take Georgia another one of. the most important swing States the. former party chairman was among the. people who organized sort of fake. elector scheme to back Donald Trump in.

2020 we need to lost the election well. he's among the people who have been. indicted for his role in that and before. he left as state party chairman he. indemnified himself and all the other. fake electors W so I think it's a 1.3 $1. 1.4. million of the Georgia Republican. party's funding so far has gone to pay. the legal fees of the people involved in. that scheme including the former party. chairman that's less money on organizing. it's less money on all kinds of things. in Nevada another important swing state.

the party chairman also faces an. indictment in Arizona another important. swing state there was another fight and. a resignation over who was in control of. the party again it happens that the. Republicans have these problems at these. State parties in several of the most. important states in the country and it. sounds like you're saying that this only. compounds Trump's problems at the. Republican National Committee because if. you have a kind of tattered and frayed. National political apparatus you would. like to have a very strong State party.

apparatus to reinforce it you're saying. that clearly does not exist for Trump in. some of the most important States Trump. now has none of the above but it's worth. noting that in some of these states like. Georgia the problems here are in some. sense problems of Trump's own making. right these are people who tried to help. Trump win steal the 2020 election and. now they're facing legal Jeopardy. because of it so they have proven their.

allegiance to Trump You could argue but. they are now a problem for the campaign. and its infrastructure nonetheless yeah. it's a strange situation but that's. absolutely right okay so put this all. together and it seems like you get to a. place where Trump may be justified in. doing what he just did which was kind of. inflicting this pretty traumatic set of. changes over at the RNC you didn't see. why the Trump team could look across the.

Republican landscape and say yes we want. to start. over we have time to clean house and. start over and make this big bet that we. can build something better but it is a. bet it's a big. [Music]. bet we'll be right. back.

[Music]. Shan before the break you made very. clear Republicans do have serious. organizational. disadvantages the question is will. Trump's wrecking ball strategy actually. fix that problem I mean we don't know. the answer to that question yet we do. know that the strategy comes with some. downsides right that there was work that. was happening that is stopped or paused.

that there are people who are going to. be doing political work or other types. of work who are now spending their time. justifying their jobs or reapplying for. their jobs or onboarding new people. which can take time uh can take weeks. and you don't have that much time over. the course of an election especially. when where you are beginning less. organized than your opponent M I'm. curious what kind of work has been most. impacted by these layoffs there's one. really important program. that the chair of the Republican Party.

who Trump just had removed Ron McDaniel. had put into place to try to get. Republicans to start voting early again. right despite the fact that Trump in. 2020 told. Republicans that this wasn't a priority. because he was busy denouncing mail and. ballots as a corrupt function of the. democratic party and she has spent years. trying to fix that message to say to. Republicans guess what Republicans for. years had benefited from early voting.

they would get their voters out early. and then they could go focus on the. folks who are less likely to vote and. get them out to vote now the new chair. that Trump has just brought into the. Republican party is pretty clearly not. as focused on this issue Michael Watley. the new chairman came from North. Carolina where he ran the party last. cycle and one of the reasons that Trump. was drawn to him is that he has been a. promoter of this idea that there's. massive voter fraud and that you have to. fight it and it certainly suggests that.

they're moving their emphasis back to. this idea of voter fraud and so this is. one of the changes that is coming about. for the party maybe not for the better. for them this fall okay so the reality. of this house cleaning when it comes to. the person leading the Republican. National Committee is that it could end. up being a setback on the very important. logistical and organizational question. of getting Republicans to vote early and. vote by mail yes it could okay I want to. turn to the larger question of who Trump.

is putting at the RNC as he is getting. rid of all these folks and bringing his. new team in and the one that stands out. the most and you mentioned it at the. very beginning of our conversation is. Trump's daughter-in-law we don't think. in American politics of generally. putting our family in positions of huge. prominence within party apparatus no I. think it's so important because it. speaks the symbolism of the complete in. Total Takeover of the Republican Party.

by Donald Trump not only is he the. presumptive nominee now he's putting a. family member at the decision-making. table of the party as. co-chair and look this isn't a shock. right Donald Trump had Ivanka Trump and. Jared Kushner in key roles at the White. House fair enough you had Jared Kushner. serving as sort of the Quasi chairman of. his 2020 campaign but he didn't have an. official role in the party and so she's. important in that regard and I've. actually heard that people are already.

responding in terms of small donations. to her name right the Republican base is. so excited for Trump that they want to. give to any Trump that's interesting. that adds to the appeal of giving to the. RNC for some Republicans the party said. that the first weekend after she was. there was the strongest weekend for. online fundraising that they had had. since. 2020 right and she's gone on Fox News. and said that she's already gotten $2.7. million in pledges of donations. now that she's the co-chair of the party.

but at the same time there would seem to. be a fine line between installing people. at the Republican National Committee who. are loyal to Trump and installing people. at the Republican National Committee who. are incapable of anything approaching. critical distance from Trump I mean one. of the first things that Laura Trump. said when she was given this new. appointment was that she was open to. using RNC funds to pay Donald Trump's.

legal bills and suggests that she's. truly only thinking about Trump versus. any version of a RNC that has some. objective distance from Trump now she's. backed away from the legal fees she said. that the party won't now in fact pay for. his legal fees but you're exactly right. that she and the other team that have. gotten there have said the party now. exists to elect Donald Trump now you.

could think of the Republican National. Committee of having a broader purpose. and helping down ballot races they've. made the argument you help Trump then a. rising tide lifts all boats the rest of. the boats are the rest of the. Republicans out there in the sea we're. going to lift Donald Trump and that's. what our focus is going to be and just. to be clear this is or isn't unusual. because you have made clear that the. Democratic and Republican committees do. exist to a certain degree to get their. party's nominee for president elected. but is this level of integration and. kind of loyalty.

daughter-in-law co-chair of the party is. that usual no this is really unusual and. look you only have to look as far back. as Donald Trump's first race in. 2016 when he was a sort of upand. cominging candidate who didn't have. political experience and when he became. the presumptive nominee that year he. arrived to the Republican National. Committee headquarters and found. professionals who knew what they were. doing. and he integrated into the existing.

party apparatus and in fact empowered. them to run much of his campaign 8 years. later they flipped the entire direction. of it all the campaign is now completely. running and directing the party look. it's normal to send staff to start. taking over the functions of the party. this is how we want it to be done it. isn't common to replace the chair and in. fact I look back and has been 30 years. since a republic nominee swapped out the.

party chair for someone of their. choosing in an election year so this an. unusual setup all around the question. that's still unresolved in my head Shane. is whether creating a Republican. National Committee with this level of. loyalty and I guess emotional and. ideological integration with Trump's. Mission and thinking and campaign is is. that the best strategy for republicans. and Trump to catch up with with Biden. and the Democratic National Committee.

and I know it's early but just based on. your reporting does this feel like a. potentially winning formula for catching. up you know it's so hard to answer that. question but I would say that for the. Trump team they're confident Donald. Trump has entered the 2024 race with a. different level of confidence in his own. decisionmaking and his own political. instincts than he had when he ran in. 2016 and then even when he ran in 2020. that's interesting and this feels like a.

bet and his team's bet that they know. best Shane I want you to play with this. proposition we started this conversation. by you saying Biden's biggest strength. was organizational but thinking about. everything you're saying here it feels. like Trump has eight months to figure. out how to integrate the RNC and his. vision of it into his campaign and that. it's largely doable and if you're Trump. wouldn't you rather have that challenge.

than Biden's current set of challenges. which feel more intractable widespread. disapproval of him from polls. disillusionment from young voters voters. of color and the entire conversation. about age that surrounds him in this. moment that seems like a bigger hurdle. than putting the right people in at the. RNC and raising a bunch of money over. the next few months that's definitely. the way the Trump people view it they. admit that they're behind on some of the.

mechanics and infrastructure as a. solvable problem they think they can. close the gap in the coming months and. that even if they can't they think that. their message is going to be more. resonant with the American people this. year than Joe Biden's message of course. that's not how the Biden people see it. they think that in the coming months. that the polling disadvantage he has. right now that that's going to erode or. disappear or flip entirely that voters. are going to start to focus in on. Trump's weaknesses on the things they. didn't like about him when he was.

president before and some of the more. radical things he's proposing if he. becomes president again that the. politics around the issue of abortion. have changed dramatically and that this. is the first election since January 6th. and that democracy itself is something. the voters are going to think. about what I would tell you is that as. boring as the idea of State party. apparatuses and financial advantages. sound that if this election is anywhere. near as close as the last two have been.

which is thousands and tens of thousands. of votes in just a couple of states that. money and mechanical advantages is. exactly the kind of thing that can make. the difference between winning and. losing which is why it's so urgent for. the Trump team to make changes and close. the gap and for the Biden people to. press their advantage in the coming. months. [Music].

well Shane thank you very much we. appreciate it thank. [Music]. you we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you need to day on. Monday Trump's lawyer said that he had. failed to secure a bond that would. guarantee payment of a nearly half.

billion doll court judgment against him. in New York despite negotiations with 30. different bond companies Trump owes New. York State more than $450 million. stemming from a civil case in which the. judge found he had lied about the value. of his properties for years unless Trump. pays the money or secures a bond for it. within the next week New York state may. begin to seize his. assets and in closely watched oral.

arguments a majority of Supreme Court. Justices seemed ready to reject a. republican Le attempt to prevent the. government from pressuring social media. companies to remove posts that it deems. dangerous to the public the case. revolves around a claim made by. Republicans in Missouri and Louisiana. that the Biden Administration has. violated the first amendment by trying. to censor social media companies but. most of the justices appeared convinced. that government officials should be able.

to communicate with tech platforms about. problematic posts related to issues like. public health National Security and. [Music]. elections today's episode was produced. by Michael Simon Johnson and AA chur V. with help from muj Z it was edited by MJ. Davis Lynn with help from Lexi di. contains original music by Maran Lozano. and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley our.

theme music is by Jim brunberg and Ben. lansberg of. [Music]. [Applause]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. michaelo see you. tomorrow.