Trumpworld Anxiety Grows Over a Rising Elizabeth Warren

[BeyondGeography]

Over the summer, Trumpworld operatives, Republican Party oppo researchers, and GOP aides in Congress have all gleefully celebrated planting unflattering stories about Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Kamala Harris. But no one seems to have landed a lasting blow on Elizabeth Warren. The earliest days of the Massachusetts senator’s presidential campaign provided ample fodder for Republicans. After an attempt to blunt President Donald Trump’s racist taunts about her Native American heritage by presenting the results of a DNA test fell flat, GOP operatives had a field day, and figured they’d feast off that misstep for some time. But Warren has recovered from that initial stumble, and steadily gained ground in the Democratic primary. And now Republicans are wondering why there is so little critical coverage of the senator and why the stories out there are making next to no dent.

“We all push out the bad Warren stories but they don’t go very far,” one Republican strategist said.

The frustration Republicans are beginning to feel about Warren’s non-stick nature was picked up repeatedly in interviews with 10 Republicans, including Trump campaign and White House officials, associates of the president, and other GOP operatives with knowledge of the situation. These sources stressed that the anti-Warren effort within GOP circles hadn’t fallen off since the DNA snafu. Indeed, everyone from officials on Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, to the Republican National Committee, to a select group of opposition researchers have been sifting through her record in search of vulnerabilities. But with few punches landing, the worry is that Trump may have already taken his best shot, and that Warren will end up looking increasingly formidable for having bounced back.

“Sure the Republican base will ultimately loathe Warren, but she doesn't inspire the same kind of historic vitriol that Hillary Clinton did,” a separate Republican strategist said. “That, combined with fact that SCOTUS isn’t on the line as it was in ’16, and remembering that Trump needed the perfect inside straight to barely win last time, and any Democrat is going to be tough to beat, Warren included.”

Within Trumpworld and the president’s re-election effort, there has been a dramatic shift in how Warren is talked about now, versus how she was discussed as a potential nominee a year ago...A year later, they’re not laughing her off. In recent months, senior Trump campaign officials have increasingly discussed Warren as a growing threat, in large part because of the enthusiasm they believe she can inspire on the progressive left, and her improving poll numbers in the primary, two knowledgeable sources say. The president of the United States appears to be taking her candidacy more seriously, as well. According to three people who have spoken to Trump about Warren over the past two months, the president has specifically highlighted what he views as her surprising political and populist talents during the Democratic primary, and has told multiple advisers and associates that he hears she could be “tougher” in a general election than many initially expected. One of these sources said Trump asked the room if they thought Warren was a “fighter.”

The Warren campaign declined to comment for this piece. But multiple Republicans argued that while Sanders received his fair share of attacks by Democrats and critical coverage both in 2016 and in 2020, Warren has largely gone unscathed. And they view her ability to campaign without taking too much incoming fire as a testament to her skill. “Bernie just screams and shakes his fist but she’s very strategic,” one Republican Senate aide said about Warren.

More at https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-and-elizabeth-warren-trumpworld-anxiety-grows-over-the-massachusetts-democrat

[tblue37]

1. K&R and thanks! nt

[Freddie]

2. Yes!

I’d be happy to support Joe but I really hope she’s the one.

[DownriverDem]

13. Not me

Sadly, I do not believe that the American voters will vote for her. A strong, progressive, Dem woman running with Biden would be a winning ticket. We need a woman VP to show Americans a national woman leader.

[Magoo48]

16. Happily,

I don’t think Democratic Americans want another president who’s indebted to the fossil fuels industry and wants to slow-walk our response to Climate Catastrophe.
https://theintercept.com/2019/09/04/after-climate-forum-biden-heads-to-a-fundraiser-co-hosted-by-a-fossil-fuel-executive/

[BannonsLiver]

23. The Intercept

I’m consistently amazed people view that Putinite rag as a legitimate news source. I guess PT Barnum was right.

[Magoo48]

26. Is what I posted accurate or inaccurate?

Is Joe receiving support from fossil fuel interests or not?

[questionseverything]

28. well if its not true biden should sue them

Update: September 4, 2019

Biden was asked about the fundraiser during the CNN climate town hall, and initially denied that Goldman is a fossil fuel executive. Anderson Cooper followed up to let him know that Goldman was a co-founder of Western LNG, and Biden said he would look into it. Later in the forum, Cooper clarified to Biden that he had been told Goldman doesn’t have “day-to-day” responsibilities at the firm. Biden said that he was told by staff that Goldman “did not have any responsibility related to the company, but if that turns out to be true, then I will not in any way accept his help.”

After the forum, Symone Sanders, a Biden spokesperson, dug in, insisting that Goldman is not really involved with the firm he co-founded. But Splinter News dug up a Canadian filing from last year that asks, “Please briefly identify the other senior management personnel involved with Western.”

The answer: “Western is managed by a seasoned team of executives experienced in the LNG and related energy infrastructure industries. Western’s co-founder is Andrew Goldman, Chief Investment Officer of Hildred Capital Partners. He is a long-term investor in the liquefied natural gas sector.” An industry press release from 2018 also speaks about Goldman as having a present-tense role in the company and describes him as “a long-term investor in the liquified natural gas sector.” He’s also the second person listed under “leadership” on Western’s site.

[BannonsLiver]

29. ...

[DrFunkenstein]

3. Teflon Liz Vs. The Guy Who Got His Fortune Lying to Holocaust Survivors About Being "Swedish"

The Pocahontas thing is already a very tired joke - and one quickly countered by the fact that Trump's father made hundreds of millions lying to Holocaust survivors about his German heritage.

Considering Trump's now "Swedish" father made him a millionaire by the time he was eight as a salaried "landlord" - and ultimately gave him a minimum of $413 million - the fact that Trump knowingly continued the lie for decades (even including the "Swedish" lie in The Art of the Deal) is quite different to Warren, who never made a penny and actually believed her parents' elopement was because of family objections to her mother's Cherokee background.

Trump was able to go against an unpopular candidate as an anti-establishment figure with an independent streak vowing to "drain the swamp." He's now well known as a extreme right-wing racist who turned the swamp into a cesspool.

He doesn't stand a chance against Warren on the same stage. Clinton was hobbled by her Wall Street ties and a muddled message. Warren is going to pulverize him right before our eyes on national television - I predict it is going to be one of the most watched events in political history.

[BeyondGeography]

7. Some people here have been complaining about all the good coverage she gets

Now at least they know the Republicans have been doing their part to “balance” things out, albeit with little effect.

[vlyons]

9. I'm not certain that Trump will debate anyone

Although his ego loves to prance and show off on a stage, he's still a coward.

[Lonestarblue]

17. By 2020, his mental condition may be such that his handlers keep him off a debate stage.

He can do rallies because he just repeats the same nonsense to great cheers from his cult followers. But having to come up with a coherent response to something he hasn’t practiced seems to be getting harder and harder for him. The whole Alabama/Hurricane Dorian thing shows a man who not only can’t admit when he’s wrong but also can’t hold information in his brain for any length of time.

[DownriverDem]

14. You have to remember

that DU is more left than the country. That's a fact.

[mwb970]

4. I have been all in for Warren right from the start.

I have not yet heard her say a single thing I disagree with. How different from trump!

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

5. A person with plans and strategy...

Versus someone that doodles with sharpies.

[catbyte]

11. This makes me cringe.

Sorry, but as an Ojibwe, this just isn't funny. You shouldn't fight racism with racism.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. How about if the whole Trump Presidency is labeled as Hocus-Pocus?

I've a small amount of New England native American ancestry, I was told, but I've done the ancestral research and I can't find them. Nonetheless, I've heard western European labels all my life. Maybe they just roll off, but I don't feel them much. Is this because they're ethnic, rather than racist? I don't know, I can't answer the question. Or maybe discrimination is silent rather than spoken.

[Snarkoleptic]

25. Sorry, insensitive...pulling it down.

[empedocles]

8. trumpworld distraction encouraging Dems to go against Biden?

[catbyte]

10. ""Sure the Republican base will ultimately loathe Warren..."

Voting against their economic self-interest again. Warren's life work has been protecting consumers like them from predators, con men, and crooks--most of whom are members of the republican party. They sure did a great job of brainwashing their pathetic, gullible base. Sad. It really is.

[Kaiserguy]

12. When all else fails

Count on the Republicans to out right lie about any and everything to harm Warren.

[ananda]

15. I like Elizabeth Warren. Period.

...

[gordianot]

18. Trumpworld will increasingly become both a source and victim of anxiety.

They really need their friends and all of them are not someone or something anyone would want to acknowledge.

[Layzeebeaver]

20. She's the real deal

My expat ballot dreams of having her name on it.

And if it’s another democrat, and then I will vote for that one - no excuses - no litmus tests.

[Demsrule86]

21. Trumps only hope is EW...maybe he wins the blue wall again if a perceived left candidate

like Warren is our nominee...just playing us. Trump is not afraid of her...nope it is Biden who is beating him in the polls by doublt digits whom he fears. I will vote blue no matter who but in order to win the states we need...Biden is our best chance.

[LAS14]

22. This is much of the reason why I switched to Warren.

I started out thinking she was to far left to win the general, and then I became aware of how nothing negative seems to stick to her. That's a really good quality to have!

[cwydro]

24. Rec.

[OKNancy]

27. kick

I know duplicates are ok for this forum, but thought if people still wanted to talk about this, here is the previous thread

[tblue37]

30. The more voters see of Warren, the better they like her. nt