Payback Tour!!
Like it or not, the Mueller Investigation was unable to prove that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia. The explanation that we are now expected to accept, is that there were a series of contacts with Russia, from Flynn to Don Junior to Manafort, that were not coordinated on the Trump side. We now “know” that all of these and more; Papadoupolos, Stone, and the President himself, lied to the American people about their interactions: for no particular reason? Sometimes what apparently is what it really is: the Trump campaign was clumsy, and ignorant, and unaware of the multiple attempts Russian intelligence was making to influence their campaign. We await the actual Mueller Report.
But with Attorney General Bill Barr’s little letter to the Congress, the President and his campaign are off the conspiracy hook. The Trump apologists are in full cry: we need to punish those who dared called out the Russian connections. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders stated that critics called the President an agent of Russia, committing treason, a death penalty offense. As Emerson said, “When you strike at a king, you must kill him,” because if you fail, he will definitely try to kill you.
The Trump Campaign 2020 has sent a list to news program producers, detailing the folks who should not be allowed on the air, “… given the outrageous and unsupported claims made in the past.” Senator Mike Blumenthal, Congressmen Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, and Jerry Nadler, DNC Chairman Tom Perez, and former CIA Director John Brennan are, according to the campaign, to either be blackballed, or attacked for their prior statements.
Senator Lindsey Graham, who admitted to advising John McCain to turn the Steele Dossier over to the FBI, has a list of investigations he wants to reopen as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He wants to follow the Jim Jordan plan: attack the FBI leadership from Comey to McCabe to Strzok; investigate the Carter Page FISA warrant; and perhaps even re-open the Hillary Clinton email investigations. He and fellow traveller Trey Gowdy were at Mara Lago with the President last weekend, clearly preparing their responses to the Barr letter.
So while the House of Representatives will continue to investigate the Trump Presidency, with Committees looking at everything from taxes to obstruction to conspiracy; the Trump Administration has moved aggressively into attack mode. It’s not just against the Trump critics. They have opened a full-on assault against the “MSM” (mainstream media – not a Microsoft product) and particularly the big four, the New York Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN.
They have also doubled down on their attacks on the new young Congressional Democrats, accusing the entire Party of being anti-Semitic. Even Benjamin Netanyahu joined in, echoing the Trump propaganda in his speech to AIPAC, the American-Israeli lobby.
So with “the enemy” on the run, the last thing any political entity would want to do is step on their own message. From the Trump perspective, ride the “vindication” of the Barr Letter for as long as he can; who knows what will happen when the actual Mueller Report emerges. But of course, this is the same Trump operation that had dozens of contacts with Russians, supposedly without the right hand knowing what the left hand was doing; so it should be no surprise that the “payback tour” would get cut short by a move of their own making.
The first action in “stepping on the message” actually occurred before the Letter was released. Last week Trump released the proposed budget for 2020, including a line item cut of Medicare of $845 Billion. While the real “cut” is closer to $595 Billion, cutting Medicare going into an election year is always going to be a tough sell.
Then yesterday, the Department of Justice weighed in on the Affordable Care Act lawsuit. Up until this time, the DoJ had taken the regular position of defending the law passed by Congress, but yesterday their brief was a full out attack on the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Should the Administration prevail in the case that undoubtedly will in end in front of the Supreme Court, ALL of the Affordable Care Act would be gone.
Getting insurance with pre-existing conditions, Medicaid expansions, keeping children on parents insurance until twenty-six, wellness care, Medicare drug cost reductions, purchasing individual insurance on the marketplace: all would end. The Trump Administration has failed to put forward any alternative plans, and neither have the Republicans in the Senate, so if this were to come to pass, the United States would be back in 2009 as far as healthcare is concerned. That’s not going to be popular.
At first glance, it might seem that Mr. Trump is so embedded in hatred towards John McCain that he would take an impossible political position just in spite. But all of this “payback tour” is really part of a clear campaign strategy. The Trump/Republican strategy is one based on the election of 2016; essentially conceding that they are unable to get a majority of Americans to vote for him. Giving up “winning” means that the campaign will need to follow the extremely narrow path they fell upon in 2016, winning by narrow margins in enough states to tip the Electoral College to their side.
So in fact, the “tour” is exactly what it seems to be, more “red meat” to the Trump base. They don’t need to win the “popular” vote, they need to hold their 40% and get enough of the rest in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin to win the Electoral vote. Their actions are specifically targeted: the “victimhood” of the investigation, the continued state action to restrict voting rights (Florida legislators are in the process of undoing the Florida Constitutional Amendment granting former felons the right to vote,) and the continual lying about healthcare (we will have a “great” system – “trust me;”) all aimed at their narrow base.
It looks like “paybacks” but it’s actually the new campaign strategy: and we’re not even in 2020 yet.
