Steering clear of prez wrong move for Dems
Experts says it’s time to fight Trump’s rhetoric head-on
WASHINGTON — As President Trump focuses his midterm election messages on the migrant caravan making its way toward the southern border — including claims of Middle Eastern terrorists infiltrating the group without evidence — Democrats are focused largely on issues like health care to motivate voters.
But on a national level, Democrats say that Trump’s rhetoric of fear and division cannot be ignored.
“The message should be: ‘We need to have a check on Trump,’” said veteran Democratic strategist Peter Fenn. “Focusing on being a check on Trump not only will mobilize our base, but for some of the folks still trying to make up their minds, they instinctively get that message.”
Democrats have largely steered clear of reacting to Trump’s stump speeches and Twitter feed, wary that making the election about the president would backfire as it did in the 2016 election. But Fenn said some Democrats have swung too far in the other direction.
“I’m frustrated because they assume that they can’t fight back with him on some of this stuff, and I think you have got to do it,” Fenn said.
Other Democrats said in midterm elections, politics are driven by local issues, not Trump.
“In governors’ races in the Midwest, the focus is on everyone’s states and not the president,” said Iowa-based Democratic strategist Jeff Link. “Here the issue that matters a lot is the privatization of Medicaid, which is a complete disaster.”
Some national Democratic figures are trying to walk both sides of the line, prioritizing issues while also taking Trump on.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), stumping through Iowa this week to campaign for midterm candidates, spoke about her plan for a health care tax credit. But she also took aim at Trump.
“This is the moment in time that is requiring us to fight for the best of who we are,” Harris said Monday in Des Moines. “We are better than this.”
In Tampa, Fla., former Vice President Joe Biden also sounded an alarm over Trump’s rhetoric, which he said is leading to “American values being shredded.”
“After Charlottesville, I could not be silent anymore,” Biden said of Trump’s comments that there were “very fine people on both sides” of a deadly white supremacists rally. “We’re in the battle for the soul of America.”