Republicans Praise Trump’s Pandemic Response – Just Like NRSC Memo Warned Against

Vulnerable Republican Incumbents Refuse to Criticize the President’s Botched Coronavirus Response 

Republicans are on the record – again – praising President Trump for what everyone else sees is an ineffective and harmful response to the coronavirus pandemic. Even the NRSC knows Trump is unpopular and warned candidates “don’t defend Trump” in a candid memo that they then had to disavow after the president threatened to withhold support from vulnerable incumbents. 

Take a look at what some of the vulnerable Republican incumbents and candidates are saying:

• Senator Thom Tillis (NC) believes that by fall, Trump’s coronavirus response “will benefit the president and [will] benefit me.”

• Senator Joni Ernst (IA) thinks that Trump has “done a very good job” and said that “he was right on it from day one.”

• Senator David Perdue (GA) insists that Trump “exhibited tremendous leadership in this whole process, looking to people who are the experts and acting accordingly.”

• Senator Susan Collins (ME) has praised Trump for doing “a lot that was right in the beginning” and even as Collins is presented with overwhelming evidence suggesting otherwise, she continues to call his early actions “correct.”

• Senator Cory Gardner (CO) refuses to criticize the president’s disastrous response, instead arguing that “I think what’s important is trying to do better and better every day.”

• Senator Martha McSally (AZ) remains supportive of the president, saying that he’s “been cheerleading for Americans and Arizonans.”

• Senator John Cornyn (TX) said that “I think certainly he’s given it his all, and I don’t know what else to ask.” 

• Senator Steve Daines (MT) continues to defend Trump and asserted that “I think he’s done a good job, I do.” 

• John James (MI) said that the president has “done everything that he has thought was best”

Their effusive praise for the president comes as Republicans grow “increasingly nervous” about their prospects in November and GOP officials are privately panicking about Senate Republicans’ weak polling numbers. As more reports detailed how the Trump administration ignored warnings, failed to ramp up testing, and allowed the coronavirus to “silently spread” throughout the United States for weeks, the NRSC warned their candidates in a memo “don’t defend Trump” — only to capitulate days later and publicly insist there’s “no daylight” between Senate Republicans and Trump following reports that the Trump campaign was “furious” over the memo. 

“Republican senators and candidates continue to show there’s ‘no daylight’ between them and President Trump’s dangerously failed coronavirus response,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Republicans will pay the price in November for choosing unyielding fealty to the president over standing up for their constituents.”

Politico: Republicans praise Trump’s pandemic response with Senate majority at risk

By Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan 

May 6, 2020

Key Points: 

• Senate Republicans are settling on their pandemic message as they fight to save their majority: President Donald Trump did a tremendous job.

• The coronavirus has killed more than 70,000 Americans, tanked the once-soaring U.S. economy and shows no signs of abating. And Trump’s ineffective leadership is largely to blame, say Democrats who are growing optimistic they can seize the Senate after being relegated to the minority for six years.

• It’s the latest sign that Trump has nearly total control over his party. And that Republicans see their own political fortunes tied to the president’s, amid a global pandemic that will dominate both the presidential race and the battle for the Senate over the next six months.

• Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whose race could easily decide the Senate, said Americans won’t necessarily be voting with today’s drumbeat of 2,000 deaths a day and endless quarantines in mind. He predicted by August everything will look different.

• Ask a Republican about Trump’s response to the outbreak, instead of edging away from the president, you’ll likely hear cheers that he shut down travel to China early and praise for his focus on the disease.

• “Generally, I feel [Trump’s] done a very good job,” said GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, who faces a tough reelection race in Iowa. “He was right on it from day one prohibiting travel from certain countries and so forth. I think it was the right thing to do.”

• “He exhibited tremendous leadership in this whole process, looking to people who are the experts and acting accordingly,” added Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), whose state is constantly eyed by Democrats as fertile ground.

• Other polls have shown the public views his guidance during the coronavirus crisis as harmful. And the latest surveys in Senate battlegrounds point to serious jeopardy for the GOP majority.

• After POLITICO reported that candidates received a memo instructing them to blame China and not defend Trump on the coronavirus, the Senate GOP campaign arm publicly rejected the strategy and made clear that Republicans are sticking with the president.

• Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), who faces a stiff challenge from Democrat Mark Kelly in the fall has similarly declined to point fingers. Her state is being targeted by Democrats both at the presidential level and on the Senate map and she’s generally been supportive of the president.

• “I think he’s done a good job, I do,” said Republican Sen. Steve Daines, who is taking on a challenge from Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock in Montana. “The president prepared for the worst, and thankfully we’re starting to see declines in infection rates and now it’s time to start safely opening up the economy.”

Read the full report here.

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