Trump aide reveals ‘three major voter suppression operations’

by Rebecca Savransky - 10/27/16 8:18 AM ET

A senior adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign says the GOP nominee’s operation has three “voter suppression” drives intended to lower the vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton and provide a path to victory for Trump.

The three efforts are mentioned by the senior adviser in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.

{mosads}“We have three major voter suppression operations under way,” the unidentified senior official told Bloomberg.

The efforts are intended to cut down on votes by white liberals, young women and black voters, three blocs important for Clinton, the official said.

To suppress the vote by “idealistic” white liberals who might have been attracted to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) campaign, the Trump official said the GOP nominee’s campaign would highlight Clinton’s support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

Trump has also tied his campaign to women who have accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault to try to decrease turnout by young women, the official said.

Hillary Clinton has a huge edge among female voters, according to polls. Trump invited three women who have made accusations against Bill Clinton to the second presidential debate.

To try to lower black voter turnout, the senior official said the GOP nominee and his campaign were citing Hillary Clinton’s 1996 comments referring to some young black criminals as “superpredators.”

Bloomberg reported that Trump’s campaign on Oct. 24 started placing spots on select African-American radio stations to highlight the superpredators remark.

The Trump campaign is also delivering an animation involving Clinton’s superpredator line to certain African-Americans on Facebook through campaign-targeted “dark posts” that are not public, Bloomberg reported.

“It will dramatically affect her ability to turn these people out,” the official said, referring to the three groups.

Nowhere in the reported comments does it suggest the Trump campaign is doing anything illegal.

While people commonly understand the term “voter suppression” to mean illegal tactics to disenfranchise minority voters, the Trump campaign’s tactics would better be described as voter demoralization.

According to the Bloomberg report, Trump’s campaign is trying to make African-Americans and other core Clinton constituencies – young women and idealistic liberals – so despondent about the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency that they don’t bother to vote on Nov. 8.

Trump has also separately sought to win over voters from all three groups to his campaign. In an address on Wednesday, Trump promised a “new deal” for black America as he sought to rally African-Americans to his campaign.

Trump has used the attacks on trade and Clinton’s use of the superpredators term in campaign events. Both attacks also came up during the Democratic primary.

Another official for Trump rejected the idea that Trump’s campaign is focused on suppressing any voters during an interview on MSNBC.

“We’re about on our Facebook Live post about energizing our folks,” said Cliff Sims, a communications adviser to Trump.

Sims serves as the host of Trump’s nightly Facebook live broadcasts, which began on Monday.

–This report was updated at 10:45 a.m.

Tags Bernie Sanders Bill Clinton Donald Trump Hillary Clinton