Trump is apparently planning to campaign in 2020 by trumpeting the Barr letter, which no one other than the brain dead (fortunately still not a majority in the country) accepts as valid.
A reliable barometer of Trump’s moods, Giuliani offered a glimpse into the future. Mueller might be done with his investigation, but Trump and company are loath to let it drop. They want to capitalize on the president escaping criminal charges and make Mueller’s findings a core piece of 2020 campaign messaging. In their view, Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary of the report is a gift that vindicates Trump, undercuts Democratic investigations, and repudiates critical news coverage. There’s time enough to talk policy on the campaign trail. Team Trump first wants to showcase the special counsel’s conclusions: According to Barr, Mueller reported no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, and he couldn’t make a judgment on obstruction of justice. Even though the probe has led to 215 criminal charges and five prison sentences, Trump and his allies have framed Mueller’s findings as total exoneration.
Yet many Republican lawmakers and strategists fear that Trump would be fixating on the wrong message at the wrong time. They worry that Trump risks repeating the same strategic blunder he made in the midterm elections, which culminated in Republicans losing control of the House. Rather than spotlight economic gains rung up on his watch, the president might wind up dwelling on collateral issues of scant interest to voters. In the midterms, Trump locked onto migrant caravans making their way north from Mexico, warning of a national-security threat that never materialized, and ultimately made little mention of the bread-and-butter issues that some strategists believe would have bolstered his party’s odds for winning.
Even if no other shoes drop, which seems unlikely, I think the “many Republican lawmakers and strategists” may be right. It’s hard to see how a campaign message consisting of “the guy I picked to squelch an investigation of me says I’m not guilty” is going to garner many votes. That’s just preaching to an ever quieter choir, but it’s all Trump really knows how to do. If the Democrats had any messaging ability they might suggest in response, for instance, that if he’s so innocent why can’t we see the whole report, etc. In fact, the Democrats might actually have the intelligence to do just that. I really don’t think “I’m not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of selling out to Russia” is a great campaign message. Here’s hoping he sticks with that approach.
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