Watch for Joe Biden and his surrogates to stand up a disciplined criticism of President Trump’s coronavirus response around “the four Cs,” per a campaign memo obtained by Axios: “Coverup.” “Chaos.” “Corporate favoritism.” And “caving” to lobbyists.
Why it matters: The memo signals the presumptive Democratic nominee’s intention to make Trump’s handling of the pandemic a central attack and provides the first detailed look at how his campaign intends to do it.
Details: Trump is “responsible for unimaginable pain and suffering — and we need to be clear and unshakeable in communicating this to the American people,” the memo says.
- It charges that Trump bought China’s “spin” and “went AWOL” early in the crisis even as “other countries, like our ally South Korea, mobilized and ramped up testing.”.
- It urges a public emphasis on two areas of impact: the death toll (“Over 40,000 Americans have already lost their lives to COVID-19”) and unemployment rates (“We are losing millions of jobs at an unprecedented speed in our history.”)
- It argues that Trump was slow to enact the Defense Production Act because he was “caving to lobbying from big corporations worried that it would hurt their profits.”
Biden told donors during a virtual fundraiser last week: “Your friends and coworkers are dying, our family members and friends and neighbors are dying, while Trump is having a temper tantrum.”