Leaked memo shows how Republicans plan to attack Elizabeth Warren if Hillary Clinton picks her as running mate
It's a little more elaborate than Donald Trump's "Pocahontas" nickname.
Donald Trump’s strategy to counter Elizabeth Warren’s verbal assaults have been fairly straightforward so far: Draw attention to the Massachusetts senator’s claims of Native American heritage.
But a leaked Republican National Committee memo, first published Sunday by the Huffington Post, reveals the GOP’s plans to attack Warren, if she’s chosen to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate, go much deeper than “Pocahontas.”
As the Huffington Post reports, the RNC plans to use Clinton’s vice presidential pick to turn supporters of Bernie Sanders against the presumptive Democratic nominee, framing the potential choice “as an insult to the large, deep base” of the Vermont senator’s backers.
Except if it’s Warren.
Even the RNC concedes that Warren, highly popular among the Democratic Party’s left wing, would appease Sanders supporters and “energize liberals.” Hence, the GOP says they would portray a potential Warren vice presidency as an “extreme lurch left” for the Democratic ticket.
From the June 24 strategy memo, titled “Defining Clinton’s Vice Presidential Choice” and authored by Raj Shah, a research and communications adviser for the GOP:
Though a Clinton-Warren ticket could energize liberals, she could equally alienate other segments of the Democratic base, namely working class and male voters, who may not resonate with Warren’s brand of liberalism or a dual-woman ticket.
The memo also noted that Clinton and Warren have in the past been “at odds” over issues like military force and financial oversight, and suggested that the Massachusetts senator, an outspoken Wall Street critic, would alienate Clinton donors in the banking industry.
Unlike Clinton, Warren has opposed efforts by the U.S. to arm and train Syrian rebels and advocated for legislation to separate investment and commercial banks. The Boston Globe reported Monday that some business leaders expressed unease at the Clinton campaign’s vetting of Warren to be vice president.
Despite their differences on certain issues, according to the GOP memo, Republicans would above all cast Clinton and Warren teaming up as “taking America down the path of the radical left,” as the memo outlined under the section labeled “Top Narratives.”
We should highlight Warren’s intensely liberal and uncompromising positions on taxes, regulation, immigration, and social issues as being at odds with Middle America and pandering mainly to the liberal, urban elite.
Given their past differences, the memo said a potential Clinton-Warren ticket “reeks of insincerity” and advised ways to capitalize if either politician adjusted her views during the campaign.
Highlighting the policy differences between the two, particularly Clinton’s ties to the financial industry and on Syria, can be used to sow unease from the left if Warren mollifies some of her views. If Clinton mollifies her views, this feeds further into the aforementioned radical narrative.
Alas, the memo calls Warren untrustworthy—a narrative that both the GOP and Trump have long looked to cement against Clinton—referring to senator’s aforementioned Native American heritage controversy and claiming that she “took money from the same lobbyists and corporations she castigates.”
An OpenSecrets.org review of campaign contributions since 2011 found that Warren has received $626,800 in individual donations from the securities and investment industry, which was a distant sixth in contributions by group, following retiree, law, women’s issue, education, and Democratic/liberal organizations.
Sean Spicer, an RNC spokesman and top strategist, told the Huffington Post that the party was aggregating previous research against the top potential Democratic presidential nominees and had conducted field research in Boston, as well as San Antonio and Richmond, Virginia, the respective homes of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Sen. Tim Kaine.
Along with Warren, Castro and Kaine are also reportedly being vetted by the Clinton campaign.
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