There is likely a direct link between the growing impeachment inquiry and the record fundraising efforts President Donald Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee reported this week, Republican strategist Karl Rove said Wednesday.
"People give money when they feel it's necessary," Rove, the former deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush, told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "If you are a candidate in an easy race, it's harder to raise money. If you are a candidate in a tough race where it looks like you can win and there is excitement, it helps a lot."
Trump's campaign and the RNC Tuesday announced raising $125 million in the third quarter of the year. It said Tuesday that it raised more than $308 million in 2019, and has more than $156 million in the bank.
"The fact that the president is being attacked by his opponents," said Rove. "It is a tribal moment in American politics. When that happens, it causes his supporters to say I want to come to his aid. Two other things here. The Trump campaign and the RNC have spent the last three years persistently paying attention to prospecting for new donors and then integrating those donors into their network and activities. And we saw that with 50,000 new donors who came in the most recent period."
That has been going on constantly over the past three years, however, said Rove. " They are spending a lot of time figuring out where these people are coming from, what they're like, who they are and finding more people like them."
Trump will travel to Dallas this week, and that will also broaden his fundraising base, said Rove, as 25,000 or more will be in the arena, tens of thousands will be outside, and possibly 100,000 will request tickets.