The wave of terrorist attacks that left nearly 130 dead across Paris Friday night has shifted the political conversation in the U.S., and our cast of Presidential hopefuls are now scrambling to refine and recalibrate their campaign messages. Some are making the transition easier than others.
Rallying cries invoking Wall Street, income inequality, jobs and healthcare have taken a backseat to terrorism, immigration, defense and amnesty.
Though it’s a macabre notion to suggest, it also goes without saying that the Paris massacre has had the unintended effect of working in at least some Republican candidates’ favor, candidates whose preexisting political platforms have left them better prepped for a national conversation that has now swung in a pro-defense, immigration-wary direction.
The result? Politicos retooled their messages over the weekend to account for the Paris tragedy, and in classic pre-primary form, are now also using the event as an excuse to attack each other.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, scoring more press than he’s received in months, blustered today that he’d prevent Syrian refugees from being relocated in his state.
Jeb Bush, appearing Friday night on "The Hugh Hewitt Show," offered perhaps the most reasoned Republican voice in wake of the attacks, calling the event “an organized effort to destroy western civilization” and suggesting the U.S. needs to work with European allies and “engage in the Middle East” if ISIS is to be dealt with effectively.
Sen. Rand Paul used the event as a chance to attack opponent Sen. Marco Rubio, who voted against Paul’s amendment to the 2013 Gang of Eight immigration bill.
Rubio, meanwhile, is apparently using the Paris attacks as a fundraising opportunity, Tweeting condolences with links to his official website.
Perhaps the shift in narrative bodes no better for any candidate than Donald Trump, however, whose platform and trademark rhetoric was already aligned to accommodate an event like the Paris tragedy months ago.
Trump calls for more guns, shut down mosques
Trump told “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough today that closing mosques was “something you would have to seriously consider.” Trump, who on Saturday suggested the Paris attack the previous night would have been “much, much different” if Parisians had been armed, also called for a return of the pre-de Blasio surveillance of Muslim communities in New York City.
Like Paul, Trump has also been going after Rubio lately in matters related to immigration, suggesting the day before the Paris attacks that the Florida Senator approved of amnesty for the undocumented because Rubio is Hispanic.
Underscoring the notion that Trump stands to gain more than anyone from Americans' renewed immigrant indignation, Ann Coulter claimed on Twitter mere hours after the attack that “Donald Trump was elected president tonight.”
Gov. Mike Huckabee, in a press release today, said the U.S. must “stop the flow of terrorists" into the country, and called Obama's response to the attacks “wimpish and amateurish,” opining that “we have a Cub Scout for Commander in Chief instead of someone who is capable of defending America and unleashing something more than a strongly worded letter through the UN.”
Huckabee also took to Twitter to suggest that House Speaker Paul Ryan should “reject the importation” of refugees into the U.S., or "step down today & let someone else lead.”
Dems drop ball in Sat night debate
Compare the GOP's fiery rhetoric to recent pull-quotes from the Democratic camp, where terrorism has come off as a sort of inconvenience, a disruption to candidates' narratives rather than a serious problem.
All three Democratic candidates appeared unprepared or unwilling to offer substantive comment on the issue during Saturday's CBS Democratic debate. They seemed out of their element, and worse, sent voters the deathly message that domestic defense wasn't something that holds their interest.
When asked about the threat of radical Islam, Hillary Clinton offered little more than equivocation:
“I think that you can talk about Islamists who clearly are also Jihadists, but … it's not particularly helpful to make the case … that we’ve got to reach out to Muslims countries, we’ve got to have them be part of our coalition if they hear people running for President who short-cut it to say we are somehow against Muslims.”
Clinton also clumsily veered from a question about her support for Wall Street into a bizarre meditation on 9/11, which was chided today by Gov. Martin O’Malley as “shameful.”
O’Malley, meanwhile, deferred to semantics during the Saturday debate, stressing his preference of the nomenclature “radical Jihadis” over “radical Islam.”
And as the New York Times reported today, Sen. Bernie Sanders touched on the potential threat of the Islamic state for all of two sentences “before abruptly pivoting to the dangers of a ‘rigged economy.’”
Sanders, of course, has also famously gone on record to suggest climate change is America's greatest national security threat.
Maggie Moran, who is well-connected in New Jersey and New York Democratic politics, has established Moxie Strategies in Asbury Park, NJ.
Husch Blackwell Strategies has added FleishmanHillard alum Michael Slatin as a principal in its public affairs group.
Rory Cooper, a veteran Republican operative and policy specialist, has joined Teneo’s Washington office as senior managing director in its strategy & communications practice.
Brian Fallon, who served as national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, is signing on next month as Vice President’s Kamala Harris’ campaign communications director.
TikTok is nothing more than a Chinese propaganda tool that poses “a grave threat to America’s national security and, in particular, impressionable children and young adults,” say two Congressmen who want the platform registered as a foreign agent.
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