The chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party said President Trump’s COVID-19 illness won’t really change things for the campaign the GOP is running in Wisconsin.
“It’s not going to change how we are on the ground here in Wisconsin,” Andrew Hitt said in an interview aired Sunday on “UpFront,” produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com.
“We’ve put in place our strategy, back last summer really, where we started to build this massive ground game, this neighborhood team. We’re going to continue to execute on that,” Hitt said.
Hitt said the party has “very much encouraged” mask use.
In a joint interview, Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler said Trump’s illness “underscores the crisis that we are in.”
Wikler said Democrats are letting science inform what they are doing in their campaign.
“The GOP’s strategy has not changed in response to changing conditions and changing information from science. The Democratic Party’s campaign strategy has absolutely changed,” Wikler said.
“As we look forward, we’re going to keep on monitoring conditions and the best information from scientists and adjust tactics accordingly,” Wikler said.
Host Adrienne Pedersen asked the chairmen about the first Trump-Biden debate in Cleveland last week, which was marked by numerous interruptions and insults.
Wikler said it was a “train wreck for Trump,” while Hitt said Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden put on a “sad display.”
“Trump needed to change the trajectory of a campaign that he is losing,” Wikler said.
“Instead, he not only didn’t do that, he also failed to disown white supremacy and repelled voters who watched behavior they wouldn’t accept from a family member or a co-worker, let alone the leader of the free world,” Wikler said.
“Yes, the president interrupted Joe Biden. But it was Joe Biden who called the president a clown. It was Joe Biden who told the president to shut up. It was Joe Biden who raised his voice several times. It was a sad display from Joe Biden,” Hitt said.
See more from the show:
http://www.wisn.com/upfront
