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- Fox News calling Arizona and its 11 electoral votes for Democratic nominee Joe Biden was a turning point for the mood in the White House, according to The New York Times.
- Blame started to shift to President Donald Trump’s hesitancy to sleep anywhere other than the White House or a Trump Organization property, according to reporters Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni.
- Despite being urged by his former campaign manager Brad Parscale and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to campaign more in Arizona, Trump was reluctant “in part because he did not like traveling west and spending the night on the road,” per The Times.
- Trump could still win Arizona, but has a steep deficit to overcome in the remaining ballots to be counted.
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Depending on how things shake out with the Electoral College, President Donald Trump’s inability to keep Arizona in his column — like he did in 2016 — could cost him a second term.
When Fox News made the early call Tuesday night that the Grand Canyon State’s 11 electoral votes would go for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the mood in the White House soured, according to a New York Times report on the Trump campaign watch party.
Anonymous sources pointed to the president’s penchant for only spending the night in the White House or Trump properties as a potential culprit, according to Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni, White House reporters for The Times.
They wrote: “Outside the White House, finger-pointing about what went wrong had already begun. Some aides said that Mr. Trump had often resisted entreaties from Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and Brad Parscale, his former campaign manager, and others to spend more time in Arizona. But they said he had resisted in part because he did not like traveling west and spending the night on the road.”
This pattern with Trump’s travel goes back to the 2016 campaign, when he would often fly back to New York to spend the night in Trump Tower even if it proved costly or logistically challenging, according to Politico.
Ironically, one of the few non-Trump properties the president has stayed in since taking office happens to be in Arizona, with Trump spending the night in a Scottsdale resort back in August 2017.
Trump still has a chance at narrowly winning Arizona, but the former vice president has performed well in the heavily-populated Maricopa County. He now has enough of a buffer that the president would need to get two or three votes for every one that Biden earns among the remaining ballots in order to have a shot.
Another issue for Trump in Arizona could end up being his repeated attacks on the late Sen. John McCain.
The Republican's wife, Cindy, endorsed Biden ahead of Election Day.
The same White House aides who said Trump didn't want to spend the night in Arizona "also tried and failed to get Mr. Trump to stop attacking an Arizona favorite son and war hero, Senator John McCain, a Republican whom the president has continued to criticize even after the senator's death two years ago," Haberman and Karni wrote.