On his radio show today, former Trump co-chair John Fredericks predicted that in the final days of the campaign, President Donald Trump will come to Virginia to help give a jolt of energy to Ed Gillespie’s struggling gubernatorial campaign. The prediction comes just two days after the Washington Post reported that former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon is now supporting Gillespie behind the scenes — and is the latest sign of the increasingly close relationship between the White House and the Gillespie camp.
“I’m going to predict right now on the radio as bad as the Trump-Gillespie thing has been with Gillespie not sending his tweet out, I’m going to predict right now that the President is going to come to Virginia in the final days,” Fredericks said.
Gillespie barely beat vocal Trump supporter Corey Stewart in the Republican primary and over the course of the past few months has been forced to try and win over skeptical Trump-Stewart voters — with mixed results. Gillespie has aligned himself closely with the Trump administration by refusing to speak out against Trumpcare, running divisive ads, and launching Trumpian attacks on media outlets. His campaign has even met with the White House to try and figure out how to win over Trump’s “hard right” voters.
Yet, as Fredericks notes, Gillespie is still struggling to win over Trump voters who are skeptical of Gillespie’s long career as a D.C. lobbyist — and alienated by his cagey response to the President’s endorsement last week.
Listen to the full interview here.
FREDERICKS: I’m going to predict right now on the radio, as bad as the Trump Gillespie thing has been with Gillespie not sending his tweet out, I’m going to predict right now that the President is going to come to Virginia in the final days.
STATE SENATOR CHAP PETERSEN: He’s got to. You know, look, there are very few people that move the needle in politics, Ed Gillespie’s not one, frankly no one in current state politics does, Barrack Obama clearly does, and Donald Trump does.
FREDERICKS: So if they bring Obama we should bring Trump.
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