[ad_1]
Michael Scherer
National political reporter covering campaigns, Congress and the White House
Republican Party Research Director Mike Reed discovered Senator Elizabeth Warren's DNA test before getting out of bed on Monday. From his room, the GOP attack machine started to move.
In the White House, President Trump and his associates first downplayed the news. Councilor Kellyanne Conway told reporters "I do not care" and Trump replied "Who cares?" About new evidence that the Massachusetts Democrat had a Native heritage.
But Republican history began to change at 9:46, when Reed sent his first e-mail to thousands of journalists and allies, exposing new topics for his party's discussion: Warren's test result showed a "tiny" percentage of Aboriginal heritage its DNA and would not put an end to the political problems that had beset her since opponents had suggested her to advance her career by claiming such ancestry.
"Having ties as weak as 1 / 512th of Native Americans does not give you the right to claim minority status," he wrote – a quote that quickly began to appear on Twitter feeds and in news stories. across the country.
It was only the beginning of a week-long anti-Warren attack that the Republican National Committee had been striving to orchestrate from its Washington headquarters, an effort that had allowed to mitigate what Warren had hoped to be a moment of claim before his presidential presidential campaign in 2020.
[Warren defends her claim to native American DNA]
And it was another trophy for a team of about 60 GOP researchers, bookers and hounds who spend all their time making the ammunition that the conservative media and Trump supporters use daily to bomb the president's enemies.
The endless stream of carefully selected – and sometimes misleading – political successes has for months been stirring the message of the Democrats while steadily fueling the fires of the conservative indignation of the Trump political movement.
"I understand their arming and, frankly, I do not underestimate it at all," said a Democratic assistant who envisions a campaign for 2020, expressing himself under the guise of "I 'm". anonymity to discuss strategy. "They are really effective when they want to be. In one hour, they all share the same message and put it forward. "
The party's operation – which includes a 15-person research workshop and a 10-person war room that analyzes news and video feeds to detect Democrat deficiencies – has established itself with a broad mandate that includes not only the mid-term elections and the upcoming 2020 competition, also seeks to attack former Trump administration officials who criticize the president.
"We are averaging more than a million views a week on Twitter, and we have 15 million views on our YouTube page this cycle," Reed said about the video component of the operation. "We have a very big megaphone."
Some Democrats attended the operation with concern. They fear that Republicans have doubled their quick response online focused on protecting Trump and his attacks on his potential rivals while Democrats have refocused their resources, for the moment, on the mid-term elections.
Recent improvements in Trump's approval rating and the release this week of a new national TV commercial of the Future45 group attacking the Democrats as a group have highlighted the concern that the party has become too focused on certain races mid Road.
"What is Trump's role in the center-left ecosystem?" Said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist who heads the NDN think tank, in an article published Wednesday on his blog. "Imagine if $ 50 million had been directed against him in recent months. . . . Would that have made a difference in the next election? Of course yes.
During this cycle, the Democrats made the strategic decision to pay the candidates money to make them responsible for specific races, usually with ads targeting specific issues. Democrats plan to reallocate their resources after November. Priorities USA, a super PAC Democrat focused on digital ads in the 2018 midterm elections, plans to partner with the Democratic National Committee to organize a Trump-based rapid response operation.
"Priorities will focus significant resources in 2019 and 2020 on bringing the mainstream press closer to traditional digital advertising to communicate directly with voters and conversation engines to empower Trump on a daily basis," said spokesperson Josh Schwerin. of the group. .
"The Democrats do not have the benefit of Fox News' conservative media house, so that will always look different on our side," he added.
The Democratic Party's rapid intervention operation also plans to increase production on Trump after the mid-term elections, after an election campaign heavily focused on pro-democracy leadership issues mid-term, including health care costs, the Republic's tax bill and education.
"We have been advocating for the Americans on issues that matter most to them, but we are delighted to learn that the NRC is so pleased with its rapid reaction operation," said spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. DNC. "The Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever, GOP candidates can not even talk about the tax cuts supposed to be their main campaign issue, and most Americans want to counter the agenda of Trump by electing a Democratic Congress, so whatever they do there, we hope they persevere. "
Democratic consultants expect public attacks against Trump on social media to increase significantly after the elections. "Starting November 7, the Democratic Party will have to interfere with its group of potential candidates," Brad Woodhouse, the party's director of communications for the 2012 round, said in an email. "Daily, relentless and without waiting."
These adjectives are also suitable for the Republican operation. About an hour after Reed's first attack on Monday morning, Republican Republic Rapid Response Director Michael Ahrens sent a message on Twitter that indicated a 2014 New York Times article in which the average share of Amerindian genomes in the United States American was superior to the report. published by Warren. The tweet started on conservative social media and has been shared more than 7,000 times, generating more than a million impressions or spreads in Twitter feeds. Later in the day, the tweet was read on Fox News.
This point was underscored when the Boston Globe, who announced the news of the DNA test, corrected his own story to point out that Warren's test suggested that just 1 in 1024 of his genome could come from a Native American heritage.
"We went from shoulder to shoulder raising our eyebrows," Conway said. "What our quick response has been able to do, is to break the noise."
[Fact Checker: Just about everything you’ve read on the Warren DNA test is wrong]
In the afternoon, broader questions about the importance of Warren's tests began to spread in the media, helped by a critique of the Cherokee Nation about Warren's decision to publicize DNA testing.
"My main goal is to disseminate information that can persuade a member of the center-left press," said Ahrens. "If I can change my mind, the base will like it too."
The same goes for an influential reader: a copy of a missive rejecting the investigation of Russia is posted on a wall in the battle room. "Michael, so true. A witch hunt. Thank you, "reads a scribbled note with a thick black marker recognizable by Trump.
In recent weeks, the Republican operation, which includes a partnership with the Republican research group America Rising, an independent political action committee, has sparked controversial controversy over the metaphorical assertion of the Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that Democrats should overthrow Republicans. Cory Booker (DN.J.), Senator, asserting that those who supported Brett M. Kavanaugh's candidacy for the Supreme Court were "complicit in evil". Both clips have become essential elements of Fox in prime time. Programming news.
This was typical of how the Republican effort is facilitated by an ecosystem of conservative media fueled by indignation provoked by democrat behavior. "It's perfectly normal to see a video appear on our YouTube page, then in the space of an hour, there's a post on Daily Caller, on the Washington Free Beacon, on Breitbart or on Washington Examiner, said Ahrens.
The party often tries to produce material for the purpose of becoming viral, including fake book covers of the latest insider accounts from the White House. Officials such as former FBI director James B. Comey, and former White House collaborator Omarosa Manigault Newman, have also become targets of the operation. Excerpts from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Republicans' Privileged Target, are also part of the usual operation.
In January, the president retweeted a false cover of Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury", titled "Fire and Fury", with the mocking title "Liar and Phony". The image of the cover was then aired on "Meet the Press" on NBC in an interview with Wolff.
Democrats preparing for probable presidential elections have begun to adjust their strategies to provide a viral counterweight to Trump and the GOP infrastructure.
While his release of DNA stumbled, Warren in particular tried to prepare for punches online, hiring a video and social media team experienced in his Senate campaign that could be transferred to a presidential effort if she showed up.
When the Globe's story was published, she released a well-produced video that sparked millions of impressions and tells the story of her family's story about the world. Amerindian heritage, with interviews with officials who hired him, explaining that his legacy gave him no benefit. academic jobs.
After the tack and attack on Tuesday, Trump repeated his racial nickname to Warren, "Pocahontas," and qualified his DNA test as "false," she seemed to rise to the challenge by reacting with a series of "jokes." attacks tweeted against the president. She accused him of uttering "frightening physical threats to me" and denounced her use of "nicknames", "racial insults" and "conspiracy theories".
Following the alleged assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post in Turkey, allegedly linked to a team linked to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the campaign for Warren's Senate released a video of 21 second with images of the 2016 Trump campaign praising the Saudis as business clients. . "Who do you really work for @realDonaldTrump?" Asked Warren's campaign.
Reed responded with a new e-mail, listing dozens of stories about the negative reactions to Warren's DNA test results. His subject: "Elizabeth Warren refuses to apologize after 72 brutal hours."
Both parties played to separate political hearings in a preview of the upcoming online war.
[ad_2]
Source link
