Republican strategy memo advises GOP campaigns to blame China for coronavirus

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Republican strategy memo advises GOP campaigns to blame China for coronavirus

‘Don’t defend Trump,’ the memo says. ‘Attack China.’

By Colby Itkowitz
April 25, 2020 at 5:28 p.m. EDT

A new Republican strategy memo advises Senate candidates to blame China for the coronavirus outbreak, link Democrats to the Chinese government and avoid discussing President Trump’s handling of the crisis.

The 57-page memo, drafted by a D.C.-area GOP strategist, was distributed to campaigns this month by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It’s existence was first reported Friday by Politico.

If asked whether Trump is at fault for the nation’s unpreparedness as the virus spread, the candidates are told, “don’t defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China,” according to the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. The memo urges Republicans to acknowledge that U.S. public health officials “acted late,” then say that is China’s fault.

“The virus came from China and China covered it up,” the memo suggests the candidates say. They can add: “I wish that everyone acted earlier — that includes our elected officials, the World Health Organization, and the CDC.” It also encourages candidates to commend Trump for enacting a travel ban to China.

The advice to down-ballot candidates is consistent with an ongoing Republican effort to brand presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as “soft” on China. ...

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/25/senate-gop-talking-points-coronavirus-blame-china-not-trump/

[GusBob]

1. Holes you could drive an ambulance thru

1. The travel ban clearly didnt work
2. Trump praised Xi

[Renew Deal]

8. Exactly

Ultimately, the travel ban didn’t make a difference.

[tanyev]

2. Yeah, that's still not going to make the virus go away.

[Frances]

3. And Trump still has a huge personal loan due to China

[samplegirl]

4. Typical republican

Cover up!

[Claustrum]

5. While China has some part of responsibility for hiding the reach of the virus,

While China has some part of responsible for hiding the reach of the virus, China has zero to do about how other countries do with their response. That is mainly on Trump (federal government) and the local government (governors) and we (the citizens).

[spanone]

6. In other words....'none of this happened'

[Renew Deal]

7. This is a great strategy, for the Democrats.

Because voters don’t care about China in any meaningful way and the republicans are basically taking blame.

It’s not great for our relationship with China. But let the republicans duke it out with them. Good luck!

[Claustrum]

10. You think China/Chinese can distinguish between republican or democratic government?

During Bush years, the world think Americans are stupid (not specifically only republicans). Whatever the republicans do now is reflected as Americans as a while to the world.

[Renew Deal]

12. They can when it comes to blaming China.

There are many problems with China, but Democrats are not openly feuding with them. We’re not making them a scapegoat for everything or ginning up racism against them.

[JHB]

9. Gee, if only we'd had someone embedded in the Chinese CDC...

...who'd have been in a position to gather information outside of official channels.

And if our own CDC had been fully staffed, including having people over there.



So instead of being in a position to make these observations, collect data, and make in-house analysis and evaluation, Mr. "We need to run the government like a business" CEO outsourced all that and blames the vendor for the drop in quality.

[Laelth]

11. This is the best they've got?

It’s laughable.



-Laelth

[uponit7771]

13. It's for thier base, they're losing around 3% of em

[Takket]

14. first off.........

Any journalist that does not have this memo in hand when questioning a GOP lawmaker is incompetent at their job. There is NO reason why the GOP should be allowed to spew their talking points when you literally have a piece of paper explaining how the talking points are crafted just to defend drumpf.

Also............ That dog don't hunt. Did China lie? downplay? cover up? Yup....... guess what IT DOESN'T MATTER........ we had ALL the evidence we needed that this was coming, it was highly contagious, and it was lethal. Regardless of whatever China said we SAW the Wuhan lockdowns and overflowing hospitals in January. On January 13th the WHO issues a press release advising all countries to prepare for the virus... and WE DID NOTHING for the next two months.

As a journalist the next question I would ask is.... how come when we had all this info about the virus and all this time to prepare, that the GOP's belief is that we should ONLY have acted if the Chinese government told us to do so? Is it the drumpf administration's stance that we let China dictate how we prepare for a possible pandemic? THAT is the question to ask if their position is we did nothing because China didn't tell us to.

[Doodley]

15. China is the reason why America has one third of all the cases on the planet?

[TheFarseer]

16. Even Trump

Couldn’t figure out how to blame Joe Biden

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. Looky over there

Not going to work this time.