After Admitting They’re Working “Hand In Glove” With White House on Coronavirus Response, Vulnerable Senate Republicans Now “Sidestep Trump” in Ads

Trump Campaign Is Slamming GOP Senators for Trying to Distance Themselves, Calling it a “Ridiculous” and “Foolish Strategy”

A new report from ABC News finds vulnerable Senate Republicans are “shifting their campaign messaging away from their ties to President Donald Trump” and attempting to “sidestep Trump mentions in ads” as they seek to distance themselves from the political fallout over the GOP’s mismanagement of coronavirus. This comes just weeks after the NRSC claimed there is “no daylight” between Senate Republicans and the president, and touted that “Senate Republicans have worked hand in glove with the Trump administration” on the bungled pandemic response.

The Trump campaign fired back, calling the down-ballot Republican strategy of running away from the president “ridiculous” and “foolish” — and issuing a clear warning to Senate Republicans: “Candidates who want to be successful should run with the President.”

“For once, we agree with the Trump campaign: this disingenuous scheme by self-serving Republicans to try to hide their records of supporting the president is ‘foolish’ and ‘ridiculous’ — and voters aren’t going to fall for it,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “As these struggling Senators keep ‘turning away from Trump’ to try to save themselves, it’s just more evidence that these weak Republicans are always more focused on looking out for their own political careers, not doing what’s right or standing up for their states.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

ABC News: On the campaign trail, vulnerable Senate Republicans tout accomplishments, sidestep Trump mentions in ads

But in the halls of the Senate, party loyalty leads the narrative.

By Meg Cunningham

May 13, 2020

Key Points:

• As the long-term effects of the devastating coronavirus pandemic become more apparent and the country assesses reopening, critics claim some vulnerable Senate Republicans appear to be shifting their campaign messaging away from their ties to President Donald Trump.

• Recent polling has shown Trump’s approval ratings on the pandemic pale in comparison to his executive counterparts at the state level and his underwater marks appear to be bleeding into the ways that incumbent Republicans fight their battles on the campaign front. An ABC News / Ipsos poll showed President Trump’s approval ratings on the coronavirus response remaining underwater, with the latest number at 42%.

• Some campaigns appear to be turning away from Trump… Although Arizona Sen. Martha McSally hosted Trump in his first visit outside of Washington since the country began re-opening, he hasn’t been featured in her ads or other media, and public opinion shows his approval rating on coronavirus response is tanking.

• “They’re clearly trying to change the conversation from being about the president’s handling of this, and the overall federal government’s response to this, because they know that it’s unpopular,” Stewart Boss, press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in an interview.

• The Trump campaign in a statement called the strategy ridiculous. “That’s a foolish strategy. President Trump is going to be re-elected. Candidates who want to be successful should run with the President,” Trump campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh said.

• Matt Corridoni, spokesperson for Democratic outside group Senate Majority PAC, echoed that sentiment, saying these senators are in a tricky position, six months out from November.

• “I think this cycle Donald Trump has a lot of these candidates between a rock and a hard place. If you hug him, you risk alienating the moderate independents,” Corridoni said. “But if you criticize him, you run the risk of alienating the base. This is really delicate tightrope.”

• But for senators who have tied themselves to Trump in the past to wield his support, it can be hard to draw the line between their campaign and President Trump’s, said Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist and vocal critic of Trump’s.

• “Once you’re associated with Donald Trump… the stink is on you. You don’t get away from it,” Wilson told ABC News.

• In a memo from a Republican strategic communications firm obtained by POLITICO, campaigns were directed not to defend Trump’s performance on coronavirus, but to deflect their answers to China instead.

• “Note – don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China,” the memo reads. The memo wasn’t independently obtained or reviewed by ABC News.

• Wilson said the playbook going forward may be hard to navigate, with only six months remaining in the cycle. “They’re faced with a terrible conundrum and the conundrum is very simple. They have to break with Donald Trump to survive. Donald Trump and his face will kill them. So, it is a really grim circumstance for these Republican candidates,” he said.

• Democrats see the shift in messaging in an attempt to focus on individual accomplishments as a positive sign for November.

Read the full story here.

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