Ric Grenell told Newsmax on Thursday he is pleased that former President Donald Trump is expanding the electoral map for Republicans in his quest to return to the White House, especially by campaigning in Democrat strongholds like New York.
Trump held a rally in the Bronx on Thursday night, about a month after he held a rally in Harlem shortly after the start of his criminal trial over the payment his former attorney Michael Cohen made to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Trump is making a big push to win the state, which he lost to President Joe Biden by 23.1 percentage points in 2020 and Hillary Clinton by about the same margin in 2016. No Republican candidate has won New York since Ronald Reagan in 1984. A Siena College poll released Wednesday showed Trump trailing Biden by 9 percentage points (47%-38%).
"What I love is that Donald Trump is on offense," Grenell told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren." "When you talk to President Trump, he says things like, 'Let's go to California; let's take it to them on offense,' and I love that.
"This is what we need in America. We need a conversation. We need people to hear something else."
Many people believe the election could mirror 2020's and boil down to five or six battleground states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But Grenell, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, said Trump isn't campaigning that way.
Trump believes he has a chance to win some blue states like New York, Grenell said, adding there aren't any red states Biden can go to where he thinks he has a shot to win.
"He's expanding the map," Grenell said of Trump. "Joe Biden is not. He can't do that. Do you think Joe Biden could go to Missouri? Do you think Joe Biden could go to Alabama, or what's the swing state for them? He's not able to do that. He wouldn't be able to give a speech. He wouldn't be well received. Donald Trump is going into blue states, and he's well received."
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