Donald Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention appears to have been sabotaged.
According to Politico, a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC obtained a draft of Trump's speech and leaked it just hours before the Republican nominee was due to deliver his keynote in Cleveland.
Even more astonishing is the fact that the super PAC, which goes by the name of "Correct the Record," says it obtained the draft from a Republican.
Politico reports that the PAC then sent it the draft out to the press, while gloating,
As if this convention hasn't been enough of a failure for Trump, somehow he let US get a hold of his full remarks before the speech.
One "senior" Republican told Politico that the leak is "a disaster," and that disaster led to numerous outlets preemptively publishing Trump's words.
One of the many astonishing parts of the draft, which at one point features the declaration "I AM YOUR VOICE," reveals a plan to make an appeal to Bernie Sanders voters.
The particularly, Bernie-centric excerpt speaks with confidence, asserting that his supporters "will" join Trump's cause, saying,
I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance. But his supporters will join our movement, because we will fix his biggest issue: trade. Millions of Democrats will join our movement because we are going to fix the system so it works for all Americans.
During an earlier passage, the draft also tries to align Sanders' criticism of Clinton's judgement with Trump's own similar criticisms of the Democratic nominee.
Her bad instincts and her bad judgment – something pointed out by Bernie Sanders – are what caused the disasters unfolding today.
Here, the draft makes what the Washington Post's Aaron Blake calls a "rather transparent attempt to co-opt Bernie Sanders supports." But an annotation from WaPo's transcript of the draft deems Trump's efforts to gain Bernie voters unsuccessful, providing poll data that shows less than 1 in 10 Sanders supports are for Trump.
The appeal, nonetheless is being made, and being made with confidence, at that.
Citations: Full text: Donald Trump 2016 RNC draft speech transcript Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/full-transcript-donald-trump-nomination-acceptance-speech-at-rnc-225974#ixzz4F5xEVs00 Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook (Politco), Washington Post
