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The Trump team has axed a volunteer who claimed in a leaked email that the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign no longer sees New Hampshire as a winnable swing state.
Tom Mountain, who has held various roles in the Massachusetts GOP, wrote in an email to volunteers that the Trump campaign “no longer thinks New Hampshire is winnable” and is “pulling back” from the swing state, The Boston Globe reported.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has an almost seven-point lead over Trump in the battleground state, 50.3 percent to 43.2 percent, according to the latest FiveThirtyEight poll. New Hampshire hasn’t been won by a Republican since former president George W Bush in 2000.
The message urged readers to focus their attentions on Pennsylvania instead, since Trump was “sure to lose by an even higher margin” in New Hampshire than he did in 2016 and 2020.
“So for those who were active in the NH ground campaign in 2016 and 2020, and expected to do the same after Labor Day, the simple question is… what are we to do? GO TO PENNSYLVANIA,” Mountain wrote.
Following the email, Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes wrote in a statement to Mediaite on Monday that Mountain would “no longer have any involvement” with the campaign owing to his “ridiculous misrepresentation of our ongoing operation in New Hampshire.”
“This isn’t true,” Hughes wrote. “President Trump’s campaign maintains an on-the-ground presence in New Hampshire, including staff and offices, while Kamala Harris is parachuting in because she knows that the Granite State is in play. We look forward to building on the momentum that we have grown since the primary and sending New Hampshire’s four electoral votes to President Trump’s column on November 5.”
The adviser added that reports about Mountain as a key official were a “massive overstatement of his involvement.”
The Independent has contacted Mountain for comment.
