WASHINGTON _ Donald Trump seized on the public discord between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders' supporters on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
As some Sanders loyalists disrupted the early speeches at the Wells Fargo Center, booing nearly every mention of Clinton's name, Trump highlighted the acrimony in an attempt to lure the Vermont senator's voters.
"Hillary Clinton knew what was going on," Trump said in regards to the 20,000 emails leaked Friday that showed Democratic National Committee staffers favored Clinton in the primary, without offering any evidence for his claim. "She knew everything hat was going on. She knew it's a rigged system, that Bernie Sanders never had a chance."
With Sanders supporters still fuming even after the ouster of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday, Trump and his team tried to keep the story front and center as the convention was gaveled into order.
"How much BAD JUDGEMENT was on display by the people in DNC in writing those really dumb e-mails, using even religion, against Bernie!" Trump wrote earlier in the day on Twitter. And his campaign also touted fresh polls showing Trump garnering significant gains. A CNN/ORC poll conducted after the convention and released earlier Monday had him beating Clinton 44 percent to 39 percent _ a 6 percentage point bounce that the campaign dubbed the "Trump Bump."
Jason Miller, Trump campaign senior communications adviser, told Bloomberg Politics that "the only ones surprised by the Trump Bump are those in the media and Hillary Clinton donors who have spent hundreds of millions of dollars attacking Mr. Trump with no measurable improvement for their side."
Trump digital director Brad Parscale texted supporters to say that Trump "asked me to keep you in the know on what happens at the DNC. If you'd like to receive updates, reply NEWS."
After the Republican National Convention saw its own share of disunity, including a speech by the candidate's wife that borrowed lines from one given by Michelle Obama and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's refusal to endorse Trump during a prime time address, many in the party were left giddy by the spectacle of feuding Democrats.
GOP strategist Chris LaCivita, who was a delegate whip at the Cleveland convention, said it was more a feeling of vindication.
"Vindication of what the Trump campaign and what the RNC have been saying for a while," LaCivita told Bloomberg Politics. "Any notion of which party truly is divided going into this general election has been dispelled."
LaCivita said the Democrats "have a lot more than the 50 troublemakers we had. These people are pissed."
"There was so much build-up for acrimony and it didn't materialize _ it didn't materialize in the rules committee, it didn't materialize on the floor," he said.
To try to lure expand Trump's coalition to include more millennials, the main super PAC supporting Trump, Rebuilding America Now, is releasing this a digital ad with a six-figure buy in states like Wisconsin, Nevada and New Hampshire, organizers said.
Just as Trump was knocked for what many critics described as a disorganized Republican National Convention, Clinton found herself a similar target on Monday.
Ed Martin of Eagle Forum said the "chaos in Philly underscores that Hillary is no leader but just a political celebrity. She's struggled as first lady _ HillaryCare, Whitewater _ stumbled as 2008 candidate, performed unevenly as secretary of state, and now cannot run a convention."
At a Monday night rally in Winston-Salem, N.C., Trump told his crowd that "manufacturing is down 50 percent in this area" due to "federal policy."
"It's policy where we have incompetent people negotiating the biggest deals in the world. Bigger than companies. Bigger than anything," Trump said. "And we have political hacks doing our negotiating instead of using our grand masters. And we have grand masters that are better than anybody in the world. And nobody ever calls them."
As for the latest Democratic email troubles and the infighting inside the Wells Fargo Center, Trump seemed delighted by it all.
"It's quite exciting to watch. Quite exciting," Trump told his audience.
