Priorities USA, a super PAC focused on the 2020 presidential race, has already pumped more than $9 million into ads focused entirely on Trump’s handling of the crisis.
“We have it totally under control,” Trump says in most ads, before ending with him dismissing his own role. “No, I don’t take responsibility at all.”
More significantly, the issue has emerged in Senate races. Just this month two Democratic super PACs have launched ad campaigns tying Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) to the Trump administration’s handling of the virus.
Democratic strategists said that these early ads were likely the first wave of what will be the central plank of the coming campaign, from the presidential race down to competitive House races, where Democratic incumbents will probably tout the trillions of dollars in recovery funds as examples of results delivered for their constituents.
It’s a stark contrast to how Democrats handled the previous three years of controversies involving Trump, from the special counsel investigation into his 2016 campaign’s alleged ties to Russian hackers, to the House impeachment and Senate acquittal of the president over his pressure campaign on Ukrainian officials to investigate the family of former vice president Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee against Trump.
Those issues, while consuming endless loops on national cable news and online journalism, were deemed verboten by party strategists in 2017. Democrats believed those scandals were too complex and complicated for the voters they needed to win back congressional majorities.
In her bid to reclaim the House speaker’s gavel, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) never stopped talking about her kitchen-table agenda of lowering health-care costs and boosting worker wages, encouraging candidates to steer clear of Trump scandals.
Propelled to a 40-seat gain and the House majority in the 2018 midterms, the new speaker stuck to the script throughout 2019. Pelosi often opened her weekly news conferences with 10-minute introductions spelling out her “for the people” agenda.
In December, Pelosi was so concerned about the appearance of fixating on scandal that she sandwiched that historic impeachment vote between big bipartisan wins for the president on government funding and a new North American trade deal.
Now, with thousands of Americans dying and tens of millions unemployed, those niceties are being set aside.
“We didn’t run ads on ‘scandals’ even when they were of huge importance to our democracy, not because those didn’t matter — they did — but because most people didn’t feel them on a daily basis,” said Josh Schwerin, a senior strategist for Priorities USA.
Instead, Schwerin and other Democratic strategists, several of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, said their party sees this moment as an affirmation of their worldview about the value of smart government and access to good health care, as well as a social safety net to capture those falling through the economic cracks.
They have policy prescriptions that are both right on substance and good on politics, which, Democrats believe, have led Trump and Republicans to join their cause in spending far more than they initially expected. During mid-March negotiations over the Cares Act, Senate Republicans initially proposed a $1 trillion package — which grew to more than $2 trillion a few days later after the GOP agreed to Democratic demands.
Two weeks ago, Republicans dug in and offered roughly $250 billion to replenish a small-business account, before overwhelming bipartisan approval Tuesday and Thursday in the Senate and House of a $484 billion package that included more money for small businesses, the health-care system and testing.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared that Washington needs to slow down its spending spree and does not want to begin talks on the next round of rescue legislation, warning about the swelling federal debt. He suggested that states hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak should be allowed to seek bankruptcy protections rather than be given a federal bailout.
In Friday’s weekly news conference, Pelosi welcomed McConnell’s refusal to consider funding for state and local governments to help prop up their budgets to avoid layoffs. She signaled what the coming fall campaign would look like as Democrats embrace the power of government while accusing Republicans of mismanagement of the federal response to this crisis.
“You don’t believe in science, and you don’t believe in governance — that’s their approach,” Pelosi told reporters. “And we do not want more government than we need. But we know that governance has a role. And we know that science has a role.”
Pelosi has not mentioned her “for the people” agenda once in the four weekly news briefings this month.
Some GOP incumbents are trying to separate themselves from the president and the emerging attacks on his coronavirus response.
“We’re going to get through this,” McSally says in a 60-second ad launched Wednesday. It shows a collection of local TV clips about the impact of the coronavirus bills on Arizona.
“The real heroes of the coronavirus crisis, and we thank them,” Collins says narrating a 30-second ad with images of first responders and grocery store workers.
What’s missing from both ads? Any mention of Trump, any image of Trump, any hint that they are working with the leader of the Republican Party on these issues.
An Arizona-based super PAC, supporting McSally’s opponent, former astronaut Mark Kelly, launched an ad in April that showed clips of the senator dismissing the impact of the coronavirus. She encouraged people to continue to work and college students to go on spring break trips, saying stopping those activities “is too much of a panic reaction.”
Last week Majority Forward, aligned with the main Democratic super PAC in Senate races, tied Collins to allegations of Trump’s mishandling of the supply chain of protective equipment for health-care workers, showing a quote of hers explaining Trump’s actions.
“Once again Susan Collins defends the president, but that’s wrong for Maine,” the ad’s narrator says.
In mid-April, Collins fired back with an ad accusing her likely opponent, state House Speaker Sara Gideon (D), of benefiting from “shameless” dark-money ads during a pandemic.
Schwerin said more ads like this are on the way.
“In 2017, 2018 and 2019 we said we needed to talk about health care and the economy.” he said. “In our lifetimes we’ve never had something more relevant to health care and the economy than covid. So we’re doing exactly what we said we would do.”
