Trump campaign on polls: 'I think it helps us to be a little bit behind'By NICK GASS 08/18/16 07:52 AM EDT
Donald Trump's new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway put a positive spin Thursday on the Republican nominee's recent swoon in national and state polls.
"I think it helps us to be a little bit behind, and we are. It lights a fire under us and reminds us what we need to do to get this done," Conway said during a two-part interview on CNN's "New Day."
As far as what needs to be done, Conway remarked, "it's several things."
Beyond the topline results showing Clinton in the lead, Conway noted that the former secretary of state's "fundamentals are still poor."
"It's not as if a majority of Americans now say I like her or I much trust her. She has a terrible gender gap among men, basically half of the electorate, that she has not been able to be turn around. And I don't know she has many places to go. In other words, she's a very defined individual," Conway continued. "And for whatever reason, because she's certainly surrounded by many talented professionals and smart people, for whatever reason, they're running a campaign about Donald Trump and not about Hillary Clinton's vision."
Conway called it "very unusual" for the Democrats to put up a candidate who does not have an "uplifting, generational, inspirational message much like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and JFK."
"And so we like our odds in this sense: We're the ones giving these policy speeches. We're talking to the press and not ignoring them," she said. "We're the ones who have the issues set in our favor because at the end of the day, this is 2000. This is 2008 all over again. It's a change election. It's 1992."
While acknowledging that Trump has lost some support among Republicans, Conway predicted that they will not go for Clinton in the end.
"They're basically saying, I don't like the way the last couple weeks went, and I want you to get back to fighting Hillary Clinton," she said.
Asked about lost support among women, Conway said the campaign would emphasize health care, noting women's predominant role as the "chief health care officers" in their households.
"We're also—if you look at his economic speech last week, helps the middle class. He's pro-entrepreneurship. And for women, also, we talk to a lot of 'security moms' and 'security non-moms,'" Conway said, calling the latter group a "growing group in our country" who are "very concerned" about national, economic and health security.
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