Mass layoffs hit RNC days after Trump-backed leadership takeover

new leadership at the Republican National Committee fired dozens of staffers the team is made up of trump loyalists including the former president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump Bron Booker and Sabrina Rodriguez join us now bton is a national correspondent for Politico and Sabrina is National politics reporter for the Washington Post thanks so much for being here I know I've seen you both recently out on the road so good to be back here in DC to talk about all of our findings um I do want to start

with RNC though because this is a fascinating dynamic where you have Trump's you know leadership team handpicked is kind of reorganizing the structure at the RNC um and Saina I'm curious what you think about what this reorganization will mean for Trump as he as soon as tonight could eventally officially clinch the number of delegates needed to to win the nomination I mean really seeing this happen is is not a surprise to many of us it's really a continuation of of what we've seen of you know Do

nald Trump really trying to take over the party infrastructure to say you know he's not just a presidential candidate but he is the leader of the Republican party and that's where we see you know him handpicking the leadership I think what we're what's going to be interesting in the months to come is what are those priorities for the RNC because the Republican National Committee is not supposed to just look at the president is all supposed to look at Senate candidates house candidates down ballo

t races and and we've seen you know Trump Focus very much on himself in the past so how is it going to look when we're looking at these down ballot races yeah and BR I'm curious your perspective too I know you were just in Mar Lago with me covering uh Trump's acceptance or uh speech on uh super Tuesday yes look I mean like Sabrina said I don't think many folks are surprised by this but in talking to Republicans today it it really depends on how close they are to Trump's orbit to get a sense of l

ike whether or not they feel like this is good or this is bad folks kind of within Trump's orbit or folks who are very supportive of the former president they love this idea they say like look remake the RNC as the eventually Nom nominee will will wants it and look this is what this party needs it needs unification and needs loyalty so that can only be good things for for the Republican party will you get a little further out of that that orbit when you get to I wouldn't say never trumpers but s

ay like um folks who are on the fence about supporting Trump they see this as a horrible thing because they repeat what Nikki Haley said towards uh the end of her campaign they are worried that this is going to be personal piggy bake for uh for the former president who's just going to pull for this and use it to pay for his legal fees um speaking of Nikki Haley Sabrina I know you've done a lot of reporting on this we've been all wondering you know where her supporters go it was just last week wh

ich feels like forever ago that she left the race I know you've talked to a lot of Voters in the various early States uh what did you find right now I mean we're seeing it's three buckets of Voters there's you know the Nikki Haley supporters that say you know okay well I'm a republican through and through all end up supporting Donald Trump then there's the Nikki Haley supporters some of which are Republicans others Democrats Independents who are saying okay no I absolutely cannot vote for Trump

I'm going to have to vote for Joe Biden to to make a point and then there's the camp which I think is the most fascinating Camp is the genuinely undecided people the the what we call the double haters that they don't like Biden they don't like Trump and they're thinking okay I have eight months to make a decision and I genuinely don't know where I'm going to go yeah we've met a lot of those on the campaign Trail as well um they'll be interesting to see how they vote in big Battleground States li

ke Georgia where we have our new polling today showing Trump leading 51% to 48% Biden but was interesting breckton to me was that um you see this kind of driven by a preference for uh Trump's policies uh particularly among Republicans I mean that seems to kind of jive with what we've been finding on the trail too where even you know Republicans who may not like the former president's rhetoric do remember his policies f especially when you're talking about the economy I think the former president

was much better at selling his achievements uh whether or not they were they were accurate or not he was a great salesman about what he was doing and saying like it it was because of me it was because of my Administration that you were feeling this this boom in your pocket right where I think what you're seeing uh on the other side of the aisle when you're you're asking folks okay why wouldn't you give Biden another chance folks continually say like I don't feel feel better off than it than it

was than I was four years ago and when you talk to Democrats they have a laundry list of of accomplishments they talk about student loan forgiveness they talk about um they talk about trying to bring the country together in in lots of ways and trying to put equity and and and diversity first but it's it's the point it's the point that they cannot sell these the these ideas they cannot sell these achievements and and what they're selling certainly is not being bought by the American public right

now yeah so much of this is what you feel versus what you see on paper Sabrina I mean this seems like a challenge for the Biden Administration the Biden reelect um and we kind of saw a preview of this today in the her hearing where they were replaying Donald Trump uh videos of Donald Trump over and over again I mean that seems kind of like a Playbook that they're going to uh put in kind of in these Battlegrounds yeah I mean one of the toughest challenges that the Biden Administration hasn't and

Biden and Harris you know as they head on the campaign Trail talking to people is a lot of the things that people are so frustrated about are kind of outside of the president's control I mean inflation or the rising cost of of living and you know you hear voters talking about how expensive is to buy a house right now or to pay rent and I mean living in DC we see it firsthand so I think there there's a big frustration among voters of feeling okay well I'm paying more so they've kind of had this A

mnesia from the Trump Administration and this feeling of well things were better then and I was paying less and I don't know if it was because of him but I know I was paying less then so and that's a big challenge they have so I think for them it's really trying to make that contrast with Trump that's where they're focusing in a lot on his rhetoric trying to remind people of the things that he said you know whether it's racist comments or anti-immigrant rhetoric um and really trying to hone in o

n that and say you're kind of remembering it incorrectly and here is the person who Donald Trump is interesting yeah it'll be interesting to see if you can persuade people to remember things your way um thank you both for being here I know we'll see you out on the campaign Trail again soon a long way to go before the general election Sabrina and bton thank you very much