Tipsheet

Former Obama Adviser Pretty Much Says NC Trump Supporters Are Too Dumb to Vote Post-Helene

They don’t even try to hide their joy over Hurricane Helene ravaging Georgia and North Carolina. These are key swing states this year, and predominantly pro-Trump counties have been hit the hardest. Asheville, North Carolina, a liberal bastion, has also been devastated by this storm. But former Obama adviser David Axelrod isn’t worried about Democratic voters because they’re intelligent, rich, and know how to cast their ballots. The rural Trump base is too dumb—he essentially said that (via Fox News): 

Former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod argued that Vice President Kamala Harris voters will be clever enough to navigate voting in the wake of the devastation from Hurricane Helene, while saying that rural Trump voters will have a harder time getting to the polls. 

Axelrod made the claim during an episode of his podcast "Hacks on Tap" that aired Wednesday, predicting that liberal voters in Asheville, North Carolina – a predominantly blue area in the state – will "figure out a way to vote" more so than conservatives in the storm’s aftermath. 

Describing Asheville as a "blue dot" in the state, he continued, "Those voters in Asheville are – they’re, you know, the kind of voters that will figure out a way to vote. You know, they’re upscale, kind of liberal voters, and they’re probably going to figure out a way to vote," Axelrod said. 

[…]

"I’m not sure a bunch of these folks who’ve had their homes and lives destroyed elsewhere in western North Carolina – in the mountains there – are going to be as easy to wrangle for the Trump campaign," the political commentator hypothesized. 

"I don’t know how that’s all going to play out, but it’s an unpredictable element in North Carolina that has made it, maybe a little more interesting," he mused. 

Communities in North Carolina – which Axelrod noted is the second-most rural state in the country – were hit especially hard by the effects of Hurricane Helene. Catastrophic flooding has destroyed roads and bridges, cutting off communities from getting much-needed aid.

These remarks feed into the narrative of why the Biden-Harris response has been lethargic. They know that helping these people means helping Trump—they can’t accept that:

Liberals hate us. We know this, but now they’re making their feeling known publicly. These opinions are no longer confined to the basement.