It has been noted that Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley had a meltdown on Friday edition of America’s Newsroom via Mediaite.
Whatley and RNC co-chair Lara Trump had been on the job only a few days when they initiated a “bloodbath” at the organization by laying off more than 60 staffers this week. Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, is the presumptive Republican nominee.
Fox News’ Bill Hemmer has asked Whatley about the drastic shakeup.
“There was a significant purge at the RNC this past week,” he said. “How will that–”
“Look, we are realigning the committee to make sure that we are focused on coming out of the primary,” he replied. “We’ve been on a primary footing. We now have a presumptive nominee and it is absolutely essential for us to make sure that our programs and our campaign efforts are aligned with the president’s.”
Whatley then repeated a refrain that is often used by challengers to incumbent presidents about whether Americans are better off now than they were when the president first took office. However, he framed the question differently and this prompted his answer to have the opposite effect he intended.
“At the end of the day, this comes down to a very simple contrast between President Trump and President Biden,” he said. “Were you better off four years ago than you are today? The answer for this entire country is no. I mean, yes. We are better off today, or, we will be better off under President Trump than we will under President Biden.”
It has been noted that during a debate with President Jimmy Carter in 1980, Ronald Reagan had famously questioned Americans if they were better off then than they were four years ago.
The campaign rhetoric presents Republicans with a dilemma these days, considering four years ago was 2020, when a pandemic raged and tanked the economy. Nevertheless, several prominent Republicans are using the refrain anyway. On Thursday night, Fox’s Sean Hannity declared that Democrats “cannot run on, ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’”
