‘Trump’s an off-colour guy’, says Republican strategist

We spoke to Albert Eisenberg, a Republican political strategist and a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Matt Frei: Albert, that was a hate rally, wasn’t it, last night?

Albert Eisenberg: I think that a lot of the people in attendance who are increasingly diverse on the Republican side – the Republican Party is getting more diverse, will continue to get more diverse this election – would protest that.

Matt Frei: Some very off colour jokes – against Latinos, against African-Americans, against Jews. I mean, just unacceptable language.

Albert Eisenberg: Yeah, but it’s funny because there’s always media uproar when it comes from the right. But I haven’t been asked any questions about the Hamas rhetoric, pro-Hezbollah rhetoric on college campuses…

Matt Frei: But that’s another issue.

Albert Eisenberg: As a Jewish person, it’s actually incredibly important how you frame the discussion.

Matt Frei: I’m sure it is. But none of those students are running for the presidency – and this guy is.

Albert Eisenberg: No but they’re supporting the Democratic Party.

Matt Frei: But this is a presidential candidate who’s been president running for office. This is his final bid – and he opens the gates to some very offensive language.

Albert Eisenberg: So the vast majority of voters are not going to be voting based on an off colour joke about Puerto Rico, which was off colour. Not good. They should have vetted that comedian.

Matt Frei: They did apologise, well they sort of distanced themselves. Is that because Puerto Rican voters matter? Especially in this state?

Albert Eisenberg: Absolutely – and Latino voters are shifting Republican. So despite a lot of the uproar and the upper educated people who consume a lot of media – most voters are pocketbook voters. They have not liked what they’ve seen on affordability. They’ve not liked what they’ve seen on the border from the Biden-Harris administration. It’s increasingly economically impossible for working class people to get by. And foreign-policy wise, the world’s become a lot less stable under Biden-Harris. So my point is just – yeah, there were some off colour jokes. Trump’s an off colour guy, but people are going to be voting based on the issues.

Matt Frei: Off colour is a very mild way of describing this. I wonder if they only sort of apologised about the Puerto Rican stuff because it matters electorally and the rest is just fine, it’s offensive.

Albert Eisenberg: But that’s politics. You put your finger in the air and decide. Politicians do all sorts of things because they think it’ll matter or not.

Matt Frei: Does it set the right tone for this country? At the end of the day, it’s one country. Hopefully someone’s going to try and unite it?

Albert Eisenberg: Yeah, I would say allowing Putin to march into Ukraine and pulling out of Afghanistan and leaving billions of dollars of military kit actually set a much worse tone than an inappropriate rally. And I hope you’re hearing me on that, because it really matters.

Matt Frei: I’m absolutely hearing you – and it matters in Europe.

Albert Eisenberg: Yeah, the viewers at home need to understand that there are regular people in this country that are not able to afford living – under Biden and Harris.

Matt Frei: Allowing Putin to move into Ukraine – Donald Trump is the guy who wants to cut and run when it comes to Ukraine?

Albert Eisenberg: I think that that’s massive speculation. But we’ll see because I think Trump’s going to win. So we’ll have to see how it goes. I think the world is going to be more safe under the Trump administration. I think a lot of people agree with me on that.

Matt Frei: And on that point of Trump winning, if he doesn’t win, do you think he’s still going to declare victory or is he going to concede?

Albert Eisenberg: Oh man – all this speculation. I don’t know whether Kamala is… I mean, she’s out there calling him a Nazi. So that’s all very heated rhetoric. I’m genuinely not trying to be defensive because I’m a Republican commentator. I’m telling you how I feel. I think both sides should concede if it’s unfairly

Matt Frei: But he didn’t concede last time around?

Albert Eisenberg: I thought it was inappropriate. And yet, you see – and this is something that I’ve talked to some of the British folks here about – Trump is probably the favourite to win this election. And it’s because the Americans have lived for four years under Biden-Harris and they don’t like what they see.

Matt Frei: But just finally, briefly, undermining trust in the institutions and the process of democracy is not helpful, is it? It’s dangerous.

Albert Eisenberg: Yeah. I mean, I think the institutions have undermined themselves in a lot of ways. I think Hillary and the Democrats undermined themselves with the Russiagate scandal, which might not have been covered as much in the UK, but was seriously undermining the legitimacy.

Matt Frei: But she never said – the election was stolen from me.

Albert Eisenberg: She has called him an illegitimate president – infinity times.

Matt Frei: She didn’t say the election was stolen, that’s slightly different.

Albert Eisenberg: He went too far. I’m not here to defend January 6th. I will never do that. I’m telling you that most people can’t afford to vote based on off colour jokes, something that happened – and there’s been a lot of bad things that have happened – including US people who have been murdered abroad due to the Biden policies.