NC Official Calls On Trump To Wear Mask During Visit Tonight
KEILAR: President Trump makes a campaign stop tonight in the battleground state of North Carolina. And a top Republican in the county where he's scheduled to visit is calling on the president to do something he rarely does, wear a mask. Dave Plyler, the GOP chairman of the Forsyth County board of commissioners, put it bluntly in the "Winston-Salem Journal, saying, "It's been ordered by the governor. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in North Carolina, do as the government says." "He -- meaning Trump -- "is a citizen of the United States but he is also a guest in our county. Without a mask, he could get sick and he could blame the governor." The president and his top aides have rarely been seen in public wearing a mask despite the president calling them patriotic earlier this summer at one point. In fact, for months, he has mocked Joe Biden and reporters who wear them.</s>TRUMP: Your second question was? I couldn't hear you.</s>TRUMP: Can you take it off because I cannot hear you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'll just speak louder, sir.</s>TRUMP: OK, because you want to be politically correct. Go ahead. You're going to have to take that off. You can take it off.</s>TRUMP: You're -- how many feet are you away?</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'll speak a lot louder.</s>TRUMP: Well, if you don't take that off, you're very muffled. So if you would take it off it would be a lot easier. But did you ever see a man that likes a mask as much as him?</s>TRUMP: And then he makes a speech and he always has it, not always, but a lot of times he has it hanging down.</s>TRUMP: Because, you know what, it gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist</s>TRUMP: Right?</s>TRUMP: No, I would say --</s>TRUMP: I would say this guy has some big issues.</s>KEILAR: Now with just 56 days until the election, it now appears that the president's big early campaign cash advantage over Joe Biden has largely evaporated as the election comes here into the homestretch. As his war chest dwindles, the president today vowing to dip into his own money and spend whatever it takes to win.</s>TRUMP: In the 2016 primaries, I put up a lot of money. If we have to, I will do it here. But we don't have to because we have double, maybe triple what we had a number of years ago, four years ago.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How much are you talking about --</s>TRUMP: Whatever it takes. We have to win.</s>KEILAR: This comes as Joe Biden's fundraising has surged ahead of the Trump campaign. Now some of those major Trump campaign expenses are being questioned. According to "The New York Times," the Trump campaign has already spent about $800 million of the $1.1 billion that it raised. For example, they spent $350 million on fundraising operations, more than $100 million on an ad blitz before the RNC convention, and $30 million was also spent paying companies to make campaign swag. For more, let's bring in Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and CNN political commentator. Doug, when you see some of these expenses, which do you look at and say they blew a lot of money that they shouldn't have?</s>DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The one people pay the most attention to and is the most troubling is anything that goes to a Trump property, which certainly this administrator and the campaign have done a great deal. You showed Dave Plyler earlier, the chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party. And I'm from Forsyth, North Carolina. And while these new stories should be troubling for a lot of Republicans, there's a big difference between Forsyth County for Trump this time and last time. I mean, about four years ago this week, I was home in Winston-Salem, stopped by the county headquarters. And they didn't have campaign signs or bumper stickers or material that they typically would. And the reason they didn't is someone told me at the headquarters, they don't have Trump people here. They don't have staff and bodies on the ground. They may not be able to fill their total campaign goals, which they laid out for a few years. But where they are this time versus last time is vastly superior. They have a good team, a robust team, and a team on the ground in the way they didn't. I know a lot of people who, four years ago, my late father was one of them, who lived in Winston-Salem who said, I wish Joe Biden was running this time. There may be Independent voters or soft Republicans who look at Donald Trump differently than they did last time or vote differently than they did last time. But the Trump campaign will still have a well-organized team on the ground and that will give him, if not an advantage going in, certainly, what he needs at this point.</s>KEILAR: OK. And thank you for that glimpse from on the ground there in your home county. I want to ask you about something that the former head of Trump's campaign, Brad Parscale, said when it came to the money going out the door. He talked about the money going to marketing strategy and going to expenses. And he said nothing was done without the approval of the family. So he's saying that the Trump family, family members, whoever that may be, right -- he's got an umbrella there -- knew where all of this money was going. So what does that tell you?</s>HEYE: I think that's probably true. Look, this is a family enterprise. And in ways that a lot of Republicans, if the last name were Clinton or Obama, would be aghast at. Republicans have certainly bought in on this. And it is also why you don't hear the widespread condemnation that you otherwise would from Republicans. I would cite the example when I worked at the Republican National Committee in 2010, when we had some stupid expenditures that were made, not of the size that we're seeing of the blown money by the Trump campaign, and Republicans were fighting over which one could criticize us the loudest. And I suppose this time, whether it's just a lot of silence, that also will benefit the Trump campaign. But the Republican Party is baked in on this. It's a family affair, to quote the old song, and that's not going to change. What Brad said rings true to anybody who has been on the inside of this campaign, but even looking from the outside.</s>KEILAR: Doug, thank you so much for the insight. Doug Heye, we appreciate it.</s>HEYE: Thank you.</s>KEILAR: What was supposed to be a moment of excitement for a family has turned into a complete disaster for California. A gender reveal party is behind one of those fires that has now burned more than 10,000 acres.