CNN’s John Berman said Friday that he finds the White House’s sudden campaign cancellations “very, very odd,” just days before the midterm elections.
President Donald Trump canceled planned rallies for Sunday in Salina, Kansas, on Saturday and Dubuque, Iowa – where both states have competitive Senate races – and Vice President JD Vance also canceled a trip to Minnesota, another state with a competitive Senate race, where he was set to speak about fraud.
“Why is the White House pulling back from campaign trips just as we’re getting closer to Election Day?” Berman asked.
White House correspondent Betsy Klein called it “a major strategy shift.” Trump has held 26 rallies this month and is still set to appear in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday evening. The White House says the new approach, with as many as 20 tele-rallies, is meant to reach more voters in more places, but she noted that different from his last midterm push.
“Back in 2018, during the president’s first term, in the last 72 hours before that midterm election, he held seven rallies in seven states,” she said.
Klein added that it’s an open question this cycle whether a presidential visit even helps, with Trump’s approval rating at just 34 percent. One Republican strategist told her the cancellations “might give some cover” to candidates like Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas “to avoid the risk that a presidential visit may carry.”
On a radio show Friday morning, Trump was asked for a closing message for Kansas voters thinking about splitting their ticket. Klein said he offered “this tepid endorsement” of Marshall.
“Roger Marshall, you have a man who’s just guaranteed,” Trump said. “I think the most effective person for farmers and ranchers, and there’s nobody like him.”
Klein said she and her colleagues are digging into the real reasons why the White House was pulling the president and vice president off the campaign trail in the final hours of the midterm cycle.
“There may be another reason why the president and vice president have changed their schedules,” Klein said. “We are asking our sources for more information.”
Berman wasn’t convinced the explanation was so simple.
“I got to say, my spidey sense is tingling, Betsy,” he said. “I find these cancellations very, very odd on a Friday. It makes me think there may be something else going on, maybe some other kind of trip, but we’ll see. Maybe not.”
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