Ousted Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale wasn't demoted by being replaced as the campaign manager for President Donald Trump's reelection bid, but instead shifted to a new position where he'll still serve as a senior adviser, campaign press spokesman Hogan Gidley said Thursday.
"Let’s be clear what happened here," Gidley told Fox News' "America's Newsroom," adding that he wasn't surprised by the decision. "The only thing that shifted was Donald Trump simply asked [GOP operative] Bill [Stepien] to steer the ship and Brad to man the guns. He's not demoted. What Brad is focusing on is the digital strategy.”
President Donald Trump Wednesday shook up the campaign staff as his poll numbers continue to drop, replacing Parscale with Stepien. He said Parscale has led in the campaign's "tremendous digital and data strategies" and will remain in that role.
Parscale's final straw appeared to be after the Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally that drew a crowd of 6,200 people, after he'd said that more than one million people had requested tickets.
Gidley said that Parscale, while being in charge of the campaign's digital strategy, has "built something no one thought possible, raising money at clips that are at historic levels." Stepien, meanwhile, is "smart, very talented, very politically savvy."
Meanwhile, Gidley said he "wouldn't buy" polls such as the recent one released by Quinnipiac University showing Democrat Joe Biden ahead of Trump by 15 points.
"The first Quinnipiac poll had Hillary Clinton up over 11 in 2016," said Gidley. "All the pollsters are using the same methodology and what's worse is, the media who reports this, the strategists and pundits and poll watchers out there on all these other networks, they know these polls are weighted towards Democrats."