[ad_1]
“The president spent two years ignoring Trump’s distractions and staying focused on the message he wanted to deliver, and it paid off with an imposing victory,” a White House official said in a statement to POLITICO on Wednesday. . “Whether or not Trump returns to public view or opens a Talking account will not make any difference to the way we communicate with the American people.”
But even though the strategy had remained the same, Biden’s team also admits that the absence of Trump and his Twitter feed was a nice addition to the work they do.
“Not having to deal with a new disturbed tweet every hour? They feel blessed, ”said an outside advisor.
Indeed, the Twitter suspension of Trump’s account appeared to realign the political universe, minimizing hijackings and interruptions as the larger conversation unfolded on Biden’s agenda. Trump was not there to demand a popular uprising against the federal mandate to wear a Biden mask. His Twitter megaphone did not advertise the construction job losses that could occur when Biden ends the Keystone XL pipeline project. Trump was not calling Biden a ‘loser’ for his Covid-19 vaccination plans, nor was he attacking Anthony Fauci as a failure he should have fired when the country’s leading infectious disease expert said how difficult he was for scientists to operate in the Trump administration.
“Since his absence on Twitter, it has become very clear just how much Trump is leading a media narrative,” said Paul Bentz, a Republican strategist and pollster based in Arizona.
Biden always faced a constant stream of criticism during his short time in office. But nothing yet compares to being trapped in the gravitational pull of Trump’s Twitter feed, which had the capacity to shake markets, topple office holders and tear news cycles apart over and over again. in a few hours.
“Trump had an incredible ability to distract from issues. It may have cast doubt on entire institutions and regular democratic processes, ”said Philip N. Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, which studies the social sciences of the Internet. “Getting him off Twitter keeps the climate change conversation on the topic – and on the evidence. The conversation about race and social inequality can stay focused on political ideas. ”
“It was kind of a sinkhole in the media ecosystem,” Howard continued, “that often tricked professional journalists into covering silly stories or just burning them down as individuals.”
While Trump’s absence on Twitter was a gift to Biden at first, it could benefit the GOP as well. For years, Republicans have pleaded with the former president to tone down the rhetoric and allow Democrats to be judged on their own actions, rather than allowing a scandalous tweet from Trump to overshadow anything from Trump. other during the day. Now that it is no longer on the stage, the party may well be in a position to lead a coordinated and cohesive campaign against the current president.
“Be careful what you wish for,” said Sam Nunberg, who was a consultant in 2016 on Trump’s campaign before being fired. Nunberg said of Biden and the crises facing the nation: “Everyone is focused on him now and it’s not on him. … He owns it now.
Nonetheless, recent evidence suggests that Biden will benefit overall from Trump’s Twitter outage. The former president has long assumed a role of chief antagonist, especially ten years ago when he pushed the birther issue under former President Barack Obama, wondering if the 44th president was born in the United States. . Initially, Obama viewed Trump as background noise that did not deserve an answer, as he wrote in his 2020 memoir, “A Promised Land”.
But while the national media gave Trump a platform – to fuel an unsubstantiated claim with oxygen – it forced Obama’s hand. The then president finally released his full birth certificate and quickly lectured the media, fueling an effort based on racist undertones. After Trump’s conspiracy faded, it moved on to wreak havoc amid a global health crisis. When the Ebola outbreak first emerged in West Africa, Trump tracked down and heckled the Obama administration on Twitter, doubting its ability to contain the disease and warning that massive spread could come to America.
In a tweet, Trump criticized Obama for choosing “lobbyist and political hacker” – and current White House chief of staff – Ron Klain as his Ebola czar. In another, Trump said of Klain: “zero medical experience and zero infectious disease control experience.” A TOTAL BLOCK! “He mocked Obama for playing golf and questioned the decision to return American doctors from Africa to their homeland.
For the Obama team, this was deeply disruptive and complicated their efforts to deal with the situation.
“A lot of the fears that gripped this country, particularly in October and November 2014, were fueled by Trump’s tweets,” Klain told POLITICO in an interview last year.
Ultimately, Klain was applauded for averting an Ebola outbreak in the United States, but Trump did not pay the price. Less than three years later, he was president.
Eric Schultz, who was in the Obama White House during Ebola, said even with Trump out of Twitter, obstacles remain for Biden – whose summit is a deeply divided Congress and country.
“Let’s not pretend there’s a clear trail here for him.” Schultz said. “This idea that Biden doesn’t face strong headwinds is ludicrous.”
But other Democrats are more optimistic about what the Trump-free social media landscape has in store. John Anzalone, a pollster who has worked for both Biden and Obama, said that since Trump has been silent Americans are likely feeling a sense of relief – a sort of reset. Anzalone said it was the media’s responsibility to allow Trump to continue to play an outsized place in today’s dialogue, given the violence that erupted after the riots on Capitol Hill.
“Would the press still report what he said?” When does it end? When does his criticism become irrelevant? At one point, he’s just an angry citizen, a former president, ”Anzalone said. “I don’t think it would change anything about the Biden administration. They just bow their heads and get things done.
[ad_2]
Source link