Trump only cares about his base

He has no interest in being president of the entire country. His election strategy is focused on turning out his base instead of increasing his appeal. A recent poll showed that the Barr letter changed nothing.

"The old-fashioned idea that a president, once reaching office, should at least pretend to be the leader of all the people these days seems so, well, old-fashioned. Mr. Trump does not bother with the pretense." — @peterbakernyt on Trump's base obsession https://t.co/mfEKbBK1xY
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) April 17, 2019

Obama regularly told people that he felt obligated to consider the interests and needs of all Americans, even those who didn’t vote for him. https://t.co/8gxKFkyi6I
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 17, 2019

"It’s often observed that Trump is a minority president. But it’s worse: Deliberately functioning as a minority president is itself the long term survival strategy." https://t.co/MVSmURmxnl
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 17, 2019

If you were one of those people who thought that the Barr memo had Changed Everything for Trump, congrats and I want to play poker with you. https://t.co/euzAVKcsmU
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) April 17, 2019

Democratic candidates donations to charity

This is not impressive. They should do more. My own donations are around Warren’s percentage and I make much less than these folks.

Here's how much of their income 2020 Dems gave to charity in 2017:

Beto – 0.31% (no, that's not a typo)
Harris – 1.4%
Gillibrand – 1.7%
Klobuchar – 1.9%
Sanders – 3.4%
Inslee – 4%
Warren – 5.5%

Why does it not surprise me that Warren leads the pack? https://t.co/UVw0QEEqEU
— Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) April 16, 2019

Up your charity game, Beto! https://t.co/QcEBOEu6VT
— Slate (@Slate) April 16, 2019

Beto O’Rourke said his campaign is working to find evidence of “thousands of dollars” in charitable donations not reflected in his tax returns https://t.co/5UEI9EF64R
— POLITICO (@politico) April 17, 2019

Trump campaign makes Barr’s spying statement worse

Barr said he thought that the Trump campaign had been spied on. He provided no basis for his statement. Now the Trump campaign has ratcheted it up a notch by calling it “unlawful spying”. They’re lying about a lie and making it worse. Sad!

Trump campaign email doctors a quote from Barr. He said "spying did occur," not that "unlawful spying did occur." https://t.co/OP4Lwo4n5i pic.twitter.com/Z0sA3pYH0o
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) April 13, 2019

Trump campaign fundraising by lying about what Barr said. pic.twitter.com/RXM93gzy16
— Philip Bump (@pbump) April 12, 2019

Trump campaign email: “Just this week, Attorney General William Barr said what the President has thought all along, he believes ‘unlawful spying did occur’ against Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign…” pic.twitter.com/5jpyfZhErv
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 13, 2019

“Spying” is not a legal word; it’s a loaded political word, signaling conspiracy theorists. Of course Barr knows this (or else he’s clueless about law enforcement). Yet He chose to use it, repeatedly. It was a political sop to Trump and a sure thing the campaign would exploit it. https://t.co/PSpJ1WpgKQ
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) April 13, 2019

AG Barr said “I believe spying did occur.”

The word “unlawful” was not part of that quote.

But the sentence in the email is constructed in such a way that the campaign could be referring to what Trump thinks.

So misleading it seems purposefully deceptive.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 13, 2019

AG Barr admitted he had no evidence to support his claim that spying on the Trump campaign “did occur.”

AG Barr must retract his statement immediately or produce specific evidence to back it up.

Perpetuating conspiracy theories is beneath the office of the Attorney General.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 10, 2019

Trump posts doctored video

This reminds me of the time he or his staff posted the altered video of Jim Acosta. It’s disgraceful. They can’t stick to the truth.

Of course, Trump is in no position to talk about how anyone treats women.

President Trump posts doctored video mocking Joe Biden's controversial behavior toward women https://t.co/Tw9cskaiiE
— TIME (@TIME) April 4, 2019

I don’t know how to reason with people who think like this

Many Republicans won’t accept basic facts about Russian interference and would even let Trump postpone the next election. I think it’s plausible he would try to do this if it appears he would lose. He’ll claim that it’s rigged and that there would be massive voter fraud.

Half of Republicans say they would support postponing the 2020 election if Trump proposed it.

This is an old survey but the Trump cult seems to be even more devoted to him now.

A majority of Republicans:
– think Russia didn't interfere with the election
– believe Trump's claim the Mueller exonerated him over Mueller's claim that he didn't https://t.co/IJ3hd6jstG
— Philip Bump (@pbump) April 2, 2019

Trump implies elections are rigged again

He insinuated there was something wrong. This is a preview of what he will do to undermine the 2020 results if he loses. Republicans should defend the integrity of the elections but of course they won’t.

What makes the widespread Republican subscription to asinine conspiracy theories about election stealing especially dangerous is that they feed Trump's inability to accept electoral setbacks as legitimate. @ed_kilgore writes https://t.co/Uks0tV4KiY
— Intelligencer (@intelligencer) April 3, 2019

Trump tells House Rs to be “more paranoid than they are” about elections and implied midterms were rigged.

“Hey, you gotta be a little bit more paranoid than you are. We have to be a little bit careful, because I don't like the way the votes are being tallied” @nikkicarvajal
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 2, 2019

How ignorance => conspiracy thinking:
-Trump tells mtng tonight it’s fishy/rigged that close House races mainly broke Dem.
-Great majority of those races last fall were in Calif.
-This is *a known reality* of late-counted vote in CA. It skews D > R. https://t.co/8bPmJxGXM3
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) April 3, 2019

President Trump, speaking to the NRCC, seemed to imply the 2018 midterms were rigged: "we have to be a little bit careful, because I don't like the way the votes are being tallied. You don't like it either, you just don't want to say it because you're afraid of the press."
— Nikki Carvajal (@nikkicarvajal) April 2, 2019

Trump campaign goes on the attack

They are the last people to accuse others of lying. Sad!

The Trump campaign thinks that people who have made "outrageous and unsupported claims" in the past should not appear on TV — which seems like it might cripple their campaign strategy. https://t.co/GVup1iFo71
— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 25, 2019

This is an unprecedented abuse of Presidential power. https://t.co/gRIWdidp73
— Jon Cryer (@MrJonCryer) March 25, 2019

The quotes in this memo are accurate and the press shouldn't be bullied by nonsense like this. There is significant evidence of collusion. There may not be enough evidence to support bringing a conspiracy case in court, but there is plenty of evidence. We need to see the report. https://t.co/HOssfXmBQq
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) March 25, 2019

"[Trump] is feeling vindicated…He's sending out memos from his campaign asking networks to have a blacklist on certain people…In a political sense his campaign will be to now cast doubt and to delegitimize all of these other investigations"-@SykesCharlie w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/I1EmgejgfX
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) March 25, 2019

Republicans demand apologies, resignations and investigations of their opponents after Barr reports the Mueller investigation found no Trump conspiracy with the Russian government: https://t.co/u29LwNFoy5
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 25, 2019

Trump, who is Putin’s stooge, accuses others of treason!

Recent polls of Democrats

The top priority is beating Trump. That’s more important than positions on specific issues. We have to get this lying bigot out of the White House!

More important in your vote in the Democratic primary: supporting the candidate you like the most or the candidate who has the best chance of beating Trump?
Best chance 51%
Like most 36%
(Fox Poll, Dem. primary & caucus voters 3/17-20/19)
see full wording: https://t.co/Ia9DLzNsgc
— PollingReport.com (@pollreport) March 25, 2019

Views of Dems: They think Biden can win but align with Bernie
Beat Shares
Trump Positions
Biden 32% 21%
Sanders 14% 31%
Harris 16% 7%
O’Rourke 11% 11%
Warren 6% 5%
Kerry 4% 4%
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 19, 2019

Lukewarm take: the conventional wisdom is right that Biden, Bernie, Harris, Beto are the 4 candidates most likely to win the Democratic nomination in some order. https://t.co/VogcZrTbsf
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 19, 2019

Beating Trump is most important for Democrats

A recent poll shows that it’s more important than a candidate’s views on issues. I agree. Any Democrat is better than Trump. We have to vote him out if he’s still in office by then.

Pretty clear that LOTS of Dems – whose views are not reflected on Twitter – just want to win & don’t have strong feelings about what winner’s presidency should focus on.

Note: that doesn’t mean Biden or Beto is favored. Voters have different views of electability than pundits. https://t.co/3nRUXE65UB
— Justin Slaughter (@JBSDC) March 19, 2019

Views of Dems: They think Biden can win but align with Bernie
Beat Shares
Trump Positions
Biden 32% 21%
Sanders 14% 31%
Harris 16% 7%
O’Rourke 11% 11%
Warren 6% 5%
Kerry 4% 4%
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 19, 2019

Lukewarm take: the conventional wisdom is right that Biden, Bernie, Harris, Beto are the 4 candidates most likely to win the Democratic nomination in some order. https://t.co/VogcZrTbsf
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 19, 2019

Caveat to the CNN poll: 59 percent of Dems say it's too early for them to say who they might support.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 19, 2019

GOP expects Democrats to sabotage the election

This is dangerous and inflammatory language. They’re all going to sound like Trump.

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel sent out this mailer to the GOP hordes. Instead of laying out a Republican vision for American policy (why bother?), it speaks of Democratic “sabotage” and predicts our “rioting mobs”.

Dangerous rhetoric. Fear-mongering & gaslighting is all they’ve got. pic.twitter.com/6vzknIbmd4
— Nick Knudsen 🇺🇸 (@DemWrite) March 17, 2019