An outrageous memo to Republican candidates instructing them not to credit President Donald Trump for the coronavirus response but focus instead on blaming China was authored by a GOP “strategist” who advised Sens. Mitt Romney and the late John McCain.
As reported by the Western Journal, the 57-page memo sent by the National Republican Senatorial Committee advises GOP contenders in 2020 to avoid any mention of the president’s role in containing the spread of the virus inside the country.
The memo was authored by the political consulting firm O’Donnell & Associates, headed by Brett O’Donnell.
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He is described by Politico as a “top Republican strategist” and has advised numerous candidates, including failed GOP presidential nominees Romney and McCain.
The Western Journal adds:
The memo recommends that Senate candidates focus on bashing China as the COVID-19 culprit rather than defending the impressive leadership of Trump during one of the worst calamities in American history.
In essence, the document advises Republican Senate candidates to distance themselves from Trump.
“Don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China,” says the April 17 memo, adding that candidates should say how tough they will be on China compared to Democrats, who are to be presented as being too soft on the Asian giant.
“China caused this pandemic by covering it up, lying, and hoarding the world’s supply of medical equipment,” the memo says, pushing candidates to keep the blame for the pandemic squarely on the Chinese Communist Party.
That much is true: China is responsible for the pandemic, covering it up, and then hoarding medical supplies while the virus it unleashed ravaged the rest of the world.
But the advice to essentially run away from President Trump is the same nonsensical, GOP Establishment noise we’ve been hearing now for almost four years. It was bad advice a couple of years ago, and it’s bad advice now.
While it seems like a century ago, recall earlier in the election cycle that Trump was still able to draw massive crowds to his rallies — people who would brave bad weather to show up a day or two ahead of his planned event just so they could get inside the venue.
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Who seriously believes the enthusiasm for the president among his base supporters has waned over his coronavirus response, which, by all accounts, has been swift, efficient, and exemplary?
Apparently O’Donnell & Associates does.
The memo outlines the anti-China strategy by encouraging candidates to pledge, “I will stand up to China, bring our jobs back home, and push for sanctions on the Chinese Communist Party” — all things that the president not only pushes, but has accomplished.
And as far as painting Democrats as ‘soft on China,’ well, the Trump campaign has already taken care of that, too.
What’s galling is that the GOP strategy firm’s memo fails to list the many accomplishments of the Trump administration during the pandemic.
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“These include not just a China travel ban but also banning travel from 26 European nations, temporarily halting immigration, marshaling top scientists to lead a task force, invoking the Defense Production Act to produce needed supplies, working in coordination with the states to ensure they receive adequate equipment, and signing trillion-dollar stimulus bills to bolster the economy during the lockdown,” the Western Journal reports. “Trump also signed an executive order to help keep meat plants open amid fears of a disruption in our food supply.”
And yet, the strategy memo strongly implies that there was no real national leadership from our Republican president during this pandemic emergency. That’s crazy.
After learning of the memo, the president’s reelection campaign reacted with righteous anger, leading O’Donnell’s organization and the NRSC to issue statements insisting they are behind Trump all the way.
But the memo certainly seems to suggest otherwise, as does O’Donnell’s history of backing presidential losers.
