Former President Trump & President Biden - AP Photo/Alex Brandon
MILWAUKEE, WI (WSAU) – Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson addressed former President Trump’s alleged comment calling the city “horrible” on Thursday by saying it cost him the state in November.
According to TMJ4, Johnson spoke to CNN’s Laura Coate about the city on Thursday, saying, “This is a great place, and the former president and every Republican who’ll have the chance to come to our great city, they’ll see that when they’re here on the ground in Milwaukee for the convention.”
“In a state that’s decided on a razor’s edge, that may ultimately cost Donald Trump the election,” Johnson continued.
Biden reelection campaign spokesperson Kristi Johnston echoed Mayor Johnson’s comments by saying, “Wisconsinites heard Trump loud and clear: He hates Milwaukee. The good news for Trump is that after he loses in November, he’ll never have to set foot in Wisconsin again.”
In a response to the mayor’s comments, Milwaukee County GOP Chairman Hilario Deleon stated people jumped to conclusions too soon, saying, “The mayor was too quick to give his opinion on this story, and it’s been reported that former President Trump was responding to a question from New York congresswoman Claudia Tenney about election integrity in northern cities like Milwaukee, and the comments were taken out of context by the media, who have ignored issues such as crime in the city.”
Former President Trump was asked on Thursday afternoon by Fox News reporter Aishah Hasnie about the comments and what he meant, and he said, “We’re very concerned with crime. I love Milwaukee. I have great friends in Milwaukee. But as you know, the crime numbers are terrible. We have to be very careful. But I was also referring to the election, the ballots, and the way it went down. It was very bad in Milwaukee. Very, very bad.”
President Biden won Milwaukee by roughly 40 percentage points in 2020 and Wisconsin as a whole by less than 21,000 votes.
According to the latest poll from JL Partners, the race for Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes is currently tied between Biden and Trump, with 7% of respondents still undecided, and Five Thirty-Eight’s latest polling average has Trump leading in the Badger State by one percentage point, which represents a nine percentage point change since this time in June 2020, when Biden led the state by 8.1%.
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