President comes out on top after showdown with Democrats
An unnamed Democrat politician admitted to CNN that President Donald Trump “won” the “showdown” with the Democrat “Squad” of Reps, Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashia Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).
Trump’s description of Omar as an America-hating antisemite caused friction around her and other “Justice Democrats.”
According to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Trump’s win was reflected in high unfavorability ratings among Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib.
Trump also reminded everyone about Ocasio-Cortez’s hand in collapsing the Amazon proposal to build headquarters in New York City, NY.
Tapper made his claims on Twitter citing his discussions with four Democrat politicians is wished to remain anonymous.
The frenzy surrounding the squad could well boost Trump’s reelection chances in 2020.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who converses with the White House regularly, said:
“He wants to keep it on celebrity versus celebrity, and ideology versus ideology, rather than solutions because he wants to tell you their ideology is going to creep into the policy solutions that the eventual 2020 Democratic presidential nominee puts forward.”
After Trump indirectly told members of the Democratic ‘Squad’ to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came,” almost nine-in-ten Republican voters said they support the President.
House Democrats appeared unified in their votes this week but I’ve spent the day talking to a bunch of them and many are extremely frustrated. All agree POTUS’s tweets needed to be condemned; they spoke under condition of anonymity so they could be candid. (Thread)
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
2/ “The president won this one,” said House Dem 1 of the Trump v Squad (AOC, Tlaib, Omar & Pressley) showdown. “What the president has done is politically brilliant. Pelosi was trying to marginalize these folks and the president has now identified the entire party with them.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
3/ Another issue: what are Dems focused on? Is it what will help the class of 2018 (largely more moderate than the Squad) get reelected?
Dem Rep 2: “The president’s words and actions speak for themselves. We need to focus on the issues that got them here: jobs, health care…”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
4/ “…instead of the issues the president brings up deliberately. Anything that takes away from bread and butter issues is playing into his hands.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
5/ Other House Democrats are conflicted about having to defend the Squad given things they’ve said and done. House Dems cited: talk of supporting challengers to incumbent Dems in primaries, AOC’s use of the term “concentration camps,” anti-Semitic comments by Tlaib & Omar.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
6/ This perceived selective outrage rankled some Dems.
“Everybody was completely outraged by what the president said,” said House Dem 3, “and everybody thought it was appropriate to criticize him…
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
7/ “…but this was the *first* time the House has taken action to criticize him in any way, We couldn’t even bring ourselves to have a resolution exclusively condemning anti-Semitism uttered by one of those members” — Omar — “but we leapt to their defense here.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
9/ “So we’ll hear a tirade of attacks on Israel from the same group,” said House Dem 3. “Hopefully they won’t be anti Semitic.”
House Dem 4 also brought up that bill coming “from someone with a history of anti-Semitism” — Omar — “So yeah it’s challenging.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
10/ House Dem 4 recalls that “less than 2 weeks ago when members of our caucus were trying to support funds for children at the border,” the Squad was arguing that “we’re pro-putting kids in cages, we’re against human rights. So there’s frustration.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
11/ Others noted that this week the House Democratic Caucus stood by a group that is not perceived as standing by them.
“I can’t tell you the number of Members who are angry and annoyed about them criticizing us,” said House Dem 3.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
12/ AOC, in particular “gives her chief of staff license to get candidates to run against her colleagues and to go after them on social media. It makes people’s skin crawl,” said House Dem 3.
House Dem 4 summed it up: “We were there for them; they should stop attacking us.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar now have high unfavorability ratings, according to a new internal Democrat poll in swing districts released on Sunday.
According to the Axios report:
“Ocasio-Cortez was recognized by 74% of voters in the poll; 22% had a favorable view.”
“Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — another member of The Squad — was recognized by 53% of the voters; 9% (not a typo) had a favorable view.”
The Democratic Party freshman has been causing a stir Capitol Hill and in the media since she was recently elected.
When asked about AOC, however, the poll found that the majority of the voting public answered either “unliked” or “unknown” regarding their opinion on the controversial congresswoman.
“All is definitely not A-OK for AOC,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.
“Most voters either don’t like the firebrand freshman Congresswoman or don’t know who she is.”