Karl Rove said yesterday on Fox News Sunday that he just doesn’t see a Trump victory happening on November 8th. Rove said that Trump would have to win and ‘inside straight’ and he doesn’t think Trump can do that:
In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” the Republican strategist said that Donald Trump’s poll numbers are simply too dismal to end in victory on election night.
“I don’t see it happening,” Rove told Fox. “If he plays an inside straight, he could get it, but I doubt he’s going to be able to play it.”
Rove was back on Fox News this morning to expound on this ‘inside straight’ that he mentioned yesterday:
Well I earlier said that he would have to pull to an inside straight. I didn’t think it likely but the race will not be over until November 8th. People are voting, where over six million people have voted as of this morning and he’s behind.
And my point is that he’s got to win Florida where he’s behind by 4 points in the RCP average. He has to win Ohio where he is up by less than a point. He has to win Iowa where he is, on the RCP average, outside the margin of error.
But to get to 270, he’s got to win states where he’s at or above the national average of the gap. He’s got to win a Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or Colorado or New Hampshire and Michigan or some combination thereof. It’s an inside straight – difficult to do but people do it. But it’s really, really tough to do.
Rove seemed to be a little less negative about a Trump victory than he was yesterday. I’m sure some people got to him telling him that his pessimism might depress the Trump vote or something like that.
But even so, you could hear from what he said this morning that his position hasn’t really changed, that he doesn’t believe Trump can pull off this ‘inside straight’ and he’s pretty much saying that Trump will lose on November 8th.