Morningside College economics professor and former talk radio host Sam Clovis, who serves as a national co-chair of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, has a message for his candidate’s GOP critics: Support Trump “or just shut the hell up.”
Clovis, who previously ran for U.S. Senate in 2014 in the Republican primary won by Joni Ernst, made the remark Thursday morning in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
“Either they want to get behind the presumptive nominee who will be the nominee of this party and make sure that we do everything we can to win in November or we’re just asking them if they can’t do that, then just shut the hell up,” he said. “That’s what we’re asking them to do.”
When Cuomo suggested that maybe Trump should cut back on his controversial remarks if he doesn’t want to alienate Republicans and risk costing the party votes in November, Clovis claimed that the candidate has in fact “broadened” the GOP. “We’ve brought out millions more people to vote,” he said. “People who have not ever been part of this, so I’m really struggling with that argument to come out here.”
Despite the $2 billion in free publicity Trump has gotten from the media during the campaign, Clovis also said that the establishment that his candidate has been fighting against “has control of the media.”
Clovis is also a senior policy adviser for Trump. Last year, he landed in hot water with Morningside College for his role in Trump’s outlandish proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the country.
