'My agenda is to blow up Donald Trump': GOP operative has a plan to turn evangelicals against the president
Proclaiming "The surest way to beat Donald Trump is me," a veteran conservative political consultant with a track record of effective push-polling designed to manipulate voters has set his sight on making sure Donald Trump loses in November with a plan to turn evangelical Christians against the president.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Steve Goldberg -- whose work with candidates dates back to Kansas Republican Sen. Bob Dole's presidential run -- stated that he is already testing out an effective push poll which he claims will flip Christian voters to Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden.
According to the report, Goldberg has formed the Express Yourself PAC with the express purpose of going after Trump, explaining, “My agenda is to blow up Donald Trump. I don’t give a sh*t about Joe Biden. I’m an unbelievable weapon. A dangerous weapon. I got Trump by the balls.”
Goldberg then went on to explain how his calls designed to change voters' minds work.
"Goldberg’s tactics are what’s referred to as push-polling, the practice of attempting to manipulate voter attitudes with loaded survey questions that seek to persuade more than gather information about voter preferences," the report notes before adding, "According to the Express Yourself call script, callers first ask if respondents are Trump supporters. If they are, the caller is instructed to ask whether 'religion [is] very important to you when you decide who to vote for.' If the respondent says it’s not important, the caller gets off the line."
However, if a recipient of a call says that religion is important, the call continues to pepper them with more inquiries.
"If religion is important, the respondent is hit with the next question, whether Jesus would be into Trump’s name-calling. If they say he wouldn’t, the caller then moves on to the real ask: 'Don’t worry, God is our future, not Donald Trump, and God will make it work out the best for our great country," the Beast reports. "The call script also has a response ready for respondents who identify themselves as Republicans, but not Trump supporters. It asks them to vote for Biden in the hope of securing a Republican Senate with a Democrat in the White House."
According to Goldberg, initial testing of the push poll in key battleground states is showing results already.
"Results from the first round of 5,000 phone calls to registered Republican voters in the five key states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Ohio, he said, show 'stunning' vulnerabilities for Donald Trump among evangelical voters who supported him in 2016," the reports states. "The figures Goldberg considered most significant, were that 22 percent of respondents identifying as members of the Republican party, rather than those identifying a personal loyalty to Trump, told the callers they hoped Trump would not win the 2020 election. Of that 22 percent, more than half—56 percent—declared they would be voting for Joe Biden in November, Goldberg claims."
According to the operative, "If there was a political hall of fame, I would be in it already for push polling," before adding, "I’m a decent man, and I want to crush this guy [Trump] and his fascist group.”
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