Meet a former GOP staffer who is 'building permission' for Republicans to vote Biden

The Biden campaign, while struggling to drum up support from some of the key members of its coalition in 2020, is trying to gain votes from an entirely different group: Republicans who aren't interested in backing former President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, the campaign announced a new member of their team: Austin Weatherford, who served as former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger's chief of staff. CNN was the first to report Weathford’s hire.Kinzinger, who retired from Congress last year, is perhaps most known for his criticism of Trump and his role on the House Jan. 6 committee investigating the insurrection at the Capitol.

Weatherford’s job, which is officially titled the National Republican Engagement Director, will involve “convincing people of the President’s character, of his accomplishments, of his bipartisan nature," he told NPR, in his first interview since joining the Biden team.

"My goal is to work very hard to convince and persuade those voters that are really smart, really intelligent, that the issues they care about are gonna be solved best by President Biden," Weatherford said.

When Haley dropped out of the GOP primary in March, thousands of Republican voters still voted for her in subsequent primaries, instead of Trump. The Biden campaign is tracking that the amount of votes she received was larger than the margin of victory needed in several battleground states.

The Biden campaign was quick to release a statement when Haley ended her candidacy, telling her supporters they had a place in the Biden campaign. "I know there is a lot we won't agree on," the statement said. "I hope and believe we can find common ground."

Weatherford would not specify how large his team working to engage GOP voters will be, but