As the White House struggles to form a clear message and effective strategy to the fast-moving impeachment inquiry, President Trump’s re-election effort attempted to take the lead today.
Alongside the Republican National Committee, the campaign held a conference call where officials forcefully reiterated White House talking points, discredited national polling on impeachment and touted ad buys and new donors as proof Democrats are going down the wrong path.
Representatives from the campaign and RNC declared this a “great partnership” of “efforts to hold Democrats accountable.”
While some of their claims were misleading or wrong, it was the strongest, most concerted effort to defend Trump thus far. There has been internal grumbling inside the White House that there is no real strategy to counter Democrats, complaints that officials said were validated when not a single White House official appeared on television Sunday.
The White House has also not held any calls or briefings with reporters to discuss impeachment.
During the campaign’s call, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh railed against Democrats’ “never-ending fishing expedition,” calling the latest news regarding the President’s call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and resulting questions the latest “excuse” to “tear down President Trump.”
Murtaugh said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are “putting politics before facts,” claiming that there is “no evidence or any facts on their side” and, that’s why they are not holding a formal vote.
Not all Murtaugh’s claims were accurate. He said that the initial whistleblower had not witnessed anything firsthand, though the intelligence community inspector general says that’s not so — the anonymous official did have some firsthand information. Murtaugh also asserted that the second whistleblower’s account “means absolutely nothing.”
