Fox News host Chris Wallace admitted in conversation with fellow talking head Shep Smith that President Donald Trump needs more than just his base to win re-election in 2020.
"If you believe the polls," Wallace said Friday afternoon, "the majority of people are against the building of the wall and think that there are other ways to do it to secure the border."
Smith asked if those indicators may be a sign that Trump is "now in a position where he’s going to stay with the base, placate the base and forget everybody else and figure out a way come 2020?"
"You can’t do it," Wallace responded. "There’s just not enough votes in the base."
He added that although some polling shows that 35-40 percent of eligible voters are "solid" Trump supporters — and that's "not enough to win an election."
"He has to expand his base," Wallace continued. "One of the things that a lot of political experts have been wondering about is — the president has a lot of leeway with the base. As you pointed out, one of the promises is 'Mexico will build the wall.' That seems to have been largely dispensed with now and doesn’t seems to have bothered his base as long as he keeps faith on building the wall."
Nevertheless, Wallace concluded, "even with that base, it’s not enough."
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