Trump would have won by 'landslide' if he'd shown more empathy over Covid, says ex-aide

Former Trump aide said his demotion this summer ‘hurt’, and that president’s approach on Covid cost votes

Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager, Brad Parscale, has said America’s suburbs were turned away by the president’s stance on Covid-19, and that it cost him the 2020 election.

“People were scared,” Mr Parscale said in an interview with Fox News, which aired on Tuesday. “He could have leaned into it instead of run[ning] away”.    

Speaking about Joe Biden’s successes in American suburbs, Mr Parscale argued that Mr Trump should “have been publicly empathetic, he would have won by a landslide there”.

"A young family with a young child who are scared to take them back to school wanted to see an empathetic president,” Mr Parscale said. “And an empathetic Republican Party”.

Instead, the president downplayed Covid-19’s seriousness, resisted his own government’s advice to control the spread, and oversaw 270,000 American deaths, as well as 13.7 million infections - the world’s highest tolls.

“I said this multiple times and he chose a different path,” added Mr Parscale. “I don't think he was wrong, I love him, but we had a difference on this. I thought we should have public empathy."

The ex-Trump campaign manager, who was speaking in public for the first time since he left the campaign, stepped down in September, following an altercation with police outside his home, which saw him transferred to hospital to receive care, amid reports he threatened to self-harm.

The president was said to have “removed” him from his position as campaign manager two months earlier, which Mr Parscale said to Fox News had “hurt”. He was then replaced by Bill Stepein.

"No one asked me to change my plan. I don't know exactly why I was removed, and all of a sudden we had to challenge the plan," said Mr Parscale, who was demoted to senior campaign adviser before stepping-down.  

Mr Parscale added that he had not spoken with Mr Trump, but that he still supported the president.