'Could sink his presidential bid': Karl Rove begs Trump to stop whining about conviction

Karl Rove wants former President Donald Trump to stop whining about his criminal conviction.

Rove, onetime senior advisor and deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, made this plea for stoicism in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published Thursday.

"He should realize that Democrats likely want to sucker him into obsessing over his conviction," Rove complained. "The more he talks about the trial, the more swing voters might see his fury and resentment as weakness."

Rove, who saw a fall from grace in 2008 over his failed "morally and practically bankrupt" campaign strategy against former President Barack Obama, then tries to argue President Joe Biden should also keep his mouth shut.

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The Republican strategist suggests the Biden campaign is foolish to egg on Trump, even as he argues Trump's obsession with victimhood could lose him the 2024 presidential election.

"The New York verdict is an even more dangerous distraction for Mr. Biden," Rove claims. "The more time he harps on the conviction, the less time he has for topics that undecided voters and unenthusiastic Democrats care about."

But Rove's claim that independents don't care about Trump's conviction is contradicted by data the Republican himself cites.

He points to an ABC/Ipsos survey that found 52 percent of independents believe Trump should end his campaign and a May 31 Morning Consult poll that found 15 percent of Republicans felt the same way.

"The initial polls weren’t great for Mr. Trump," Rove writes of this data. "If this doesn’t improve, it could sink his presidential bid."

Rove argues the solution to this problem is for Trump, in essence, to stop whining.

"It doesn’t help Mr. Trump’s campaign to make the race about his rage rather than voters and their concerns," Rove writes. "The less he talks about being a victim and the more confidently he dismisses the verdict as likely to be overturned on appeal, the stronger he’ll appear."