Trump refused pleas from Republicans to visit Arizona more — because he hated 'traveling west': report

On Wednesday, The New York Timespublished a postmortem of how President Donald Trump's campaign handled Arizona — which is still counting votes but currently shows a lead for Joe Biden — and outlined the reason why he did not visit the state more frequently.

"With Florida looking red early on Tuesday night, President Trump and his advisers thought they were witnessing a repeat of election night 2016, when a victory in Florida foreshadowed a victory over all," reported Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman. "That mirage of victory was pierced when Fox News called Arizona for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at 11:20 p.m., with just 73 percent of the state’s vote counted."

The president's immediate reaction, according to reports, was to call Fox News' parent company owner Rupert Murdoch and demand that he make the network retract the call — which he refused to do.

"Some aides said that Mr. Trump had often resisted entreaties from Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and Bradley Parscale, his former campaign manager, and others to spend more time in Arizona," said the report. "But they said he had resisted in part because he did not like traveling west and spending the night on the road."

According to the report, some aides also faulted Trump for spending so much time attacking the late Sen. John McCain, a beloved icon in the state, and for spending so much campaign money before the coronavirus pandemic exploded, leaving him with insufficient resources to contest close states.

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