Here's how one Republican strategist plans to take down Donald Trump
It doesn't seem to matter if he makes offensive comments or screws up his facts. Donald Trump has been the GOP front-runner for months. The implosion, assumed to be inevitable, has yet to occur and has now prompted some members of the Republican Party to start taking action to stop his presidential campaign.
Their fear? Trump is hurting the Republican Party's image. The longer he's around, the more likely it is that Democrat Hillary Clinton will become the next president.
Over the course of the campaign, Trump has appeared to mock a disabled reporter, he's linked Syrian refugees to terrorism, targeted Mexicans over the immigration debate and made sexist comments about women. The list goes on. And, all the while he continues to steal headlines - and support.
Liz Mair, a Republican strategist, hopes that's about to change. She has worked for heavyweights such as governors Scott Walker, Rick Perry, and Carly Fiorina, another Republican presidential hopeful. But now, Mair is adding to her resume. She's launched Trump Card LLC, a limited liability company designed for one sole purpose: to take down Donald Trump.
"From my perspective this is not really something that the party can choose to ignore long term," Mair tells As It Happens host Carol Off. "There have to be some of us that step up and try to take him out."
According to Mair, her company differs from a super PAC because it allows people to donate anonymously. Mair says Trump Card is currently "restructuring" and she is not at liberty to discuss specifics. But her objective is clear.
"What we are attempting to do is do a lot more, in terms of earned media opposition research, communicating with people in early primary states, grassroots work," Mair explains. "In order to ensure that people actually do understand things that Trump is saying out there."
Mair hopes that Trump Card will expose the billionaire, quell his celebrity appeal and persuade people to make a more informed choice. She adds that other members of the Republican Party are starting to join her effort and take up her proactive approach.
"He is a big fan of the Canadian healthcare system [and] eminent domain abuse, basically taking peoples' houses in order to build casino parking lots...or attempting to do so." Mair also questions his success as a businessman. She says many of Trump's views aren't in line with fiscal Conservatives.
She says a lack of accessible knowledge surrounding Trump's record and platform is the problem. She admits Trump's stance on political correctness and his use of extreme rhetoric may resonate with some of his supporters but, she says, ultimately Trump's popularity is due to his name rather than his policies.
"According to one survey he has about 99.2 per cent name recognition," Mair explains. "A lot of Trump voters, or Trump inclined voters, are people who are operating with very little information. They like the fact that he'll say things that other people might not because it doesn't adhere to their talking points but they don't actually know what he stands for and they don't really know that much about his actual business record, which is far less successful than what he likes to pretend."
Mair says Trump Card's budget comes in at around $250,000, which is far below the money raised for similar efforts. But she says she'll save on costs in one big way: avoiding TV advertising.
"There are a lot of people who have said, 'Oh, he is going to implode,' and they're people who have being saying that for months now - I said that for months," Mair explains. "Now he very well may do something at some point that causes him to implode. I certainly hope he does. I really look at what we're doing as being almost an insurance policy."