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ICYMI: McCormick MAGA-proofs his Senate campaign after dissing Trump [Politico]

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Politico: McCormick MAGA-proofs his Senate campaign after dissing Trump
By Holly Otterbein and Natalie Allison
January 11, 2022

The new Pennsylvania candidate is certain to face GOP primary attacks.

Key Points:

  • Dave McCormick has been quoted bashing populism, celebrating skilled immigration and even warning about the potential drawbacks of an “America First” mindset. A former hedge fund CEO, he’s overseen more than $1 billion in investments in China.
  • “He is a little more of a globalist than I would like,” said Gloria Lee Snover, chair of Northampton County’s Republican Party.
  • ​​An early Jeb Bush backer, McCormick hasn’t always been deferential to Trump. “I wasn’t particularly involved with the Trump camp — I wasn’t a Trump supporter,” he said at a 2017 event at Duke University.”
  • After the attack on the Capitol last January, McCormick said at a Bloomberg summit that Trump bore “a lot of responsibility” for the “polarization” and “divisiveness” of the previous four years. In the same interview, he complimented President Joe Biden, saying he “really appreciated Biden’s tone” about uniting the country, and called the news of some of Biden’s first appointments “encouraging.”
  • McCormick’s past remarks could threaten his chances of landing an all-important endorsement from Trump.
  • Last month, Trump watched the January 2021 clip of McCormick chiding Trump’s rhetoric, according to a person close to the former president. Trump at the time also reviewed a document outlining other comments McCormick has made.
  • Unlike other Republicans who criticized Trump during the 2016 election, some of McCormick’s critiques are more current, which could work against him.
  • “The sliding scale is the more recent your insults have been, the more they weigh” to the former president, said the source close to Trump. “To that extent, it’s not great to be David McCormick today.”
  • “It’s almost insurmountable,” said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), an Oz backer, referring to McCormick’s past comments on Trump, as well as business philosophies that the congressman argued were at odds with Trump’s “America First” agenda.
  • At the 2017 Duke University event, McCormick said an America First economic policy could “potentially” undermine the country’s ability to build multilateral coalitions… In the same interview, McCormick declined to say whether he supported Trump-imposed tariffs.
  • “You just can’t get off the ground with anti-Trump comments,” Reschenthaler said. “I can’t even think of anyone who has been successful. It’s a political non-starter within the Republican primary.”

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