Michael Steele: Donald Trump Is The Drag On His Campaign
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Former Chairman on the Republican National Committee says the combination of Donald Trump's carelessness and failure to hire enough competent campaign staff is sabotaging his bid to become the next President of the United States.
Steele, during an interview with Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said it is time to end the amateurish nature of his operation.
"Donald Trump is the drag on his campaign. At least how it's been prior to the convention. If he continues to be, that makes this a much more difficult race. All the stuff that he's having to defend. All of the things that have been said. Even this week with Melania's speech, not being careful, not being prepared, not being diligent. Get staff. Put the staff around you. Spend a few million bucks to make sure you've got competent, capable people. This is the Superbowl of politics. This is the Superbowl. You don't go into the Superbowl playing like you're in the first game of the season."
He stated that too much work still has to be done for Trump to muddle through the way he has so far.
"It's not about whether or not people perceive your campaign as being competent, ready and all of that. It's about your capability to execute. If you can't get your message through the pipeline, you're not ready. No matter how much people look at you externally and go, oh yeah, I'm with Trump and all that. You still have to turn out a vote. You still need to know where the bodies are. You still need to know what the mood is. You have to feel your way through it, but also have some sense of where its going and the way you do that is putting certain pieces in place."
He pointed to the speech by his wife, Melania, as an example of what needs to change moving forward.
"At this stage what you can do is make an investment in things like making sure that your wife's speech isn't plagiarized...Here is the rub, that's great that you apologized today but why do you have to apologize? Why are you in a position where you have to apologize. If that had not happened, think about what Tuesday would have been. Tuesday would have been Melania. That would've been the front page of the Washington Post and the New York Times with her name and an exclamation point."