Karl Rove: Democratic Responses To Trump’s Speech ‘Affected His Delivery’

Republican strategist Karl Rove gestures while at a luncheon at the California Republican Party convention, in Sacramento, Calif., Saturday, March 2, 2013. Rove told California Republicans to "get off the mat", and... Republican strategist Karl Rove gestures while at a luncheon at the California Republican Party convention, in Sacramento, Calif., Saturday, March 2, 2013. Rove told California Republicans to "get off the mat", and to find candidates to reflect the party's diversity. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) MORE LESS
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Former George W. Bush aide Karl Rove said Wednesday that Democrats’ less-than-enthusiastic responses to President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress “affected his delivery.”

“You could tell it affected his delivery a little bit,” Rove said Wednesday in an interview on Fox Business Network. “He started reading almost exclusively from the panel to his left, which allowed him to look at the right side of the chamber, which were the Republicans.”

He said that Democrats were “in an awkward place” during the speech and looked “churlish and small” in their reactions.

“They don’t like him, they didn’t want to seen as, you know, they’re being pressed by their hard left to oppose him on each and every thing,” Rove said. “I mean, when he denounced hate and evil in all of its forms, a lot of Democrats didn’t applaud and very few of them stood. That’s just how poisoned the atmosphere is.”

He said that Democrats applauded Trump’s comments about paid family leave and NATO, as well as the widow of a U.S. commando killed during the first counter-terrorism operation of his presidency.

“But other than that they just sat there in stony silence,” Rove said. “When he talked about repealing and replacing Obamacare, you had backbenchers, literally the backbenchers, going thumbs down on camera.”

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