It’s all China’s fault.
Late last night, Politico.com punched the button on a piece that had President Donald Trump's re-election campaign in an uproar:
Earlier this month, the Senate Republican campaign arm circulated a memo with shocking advice to GOP candidates on responding to coronavirus: "Don't defend Trump, other than the China Travel Ban — attack China."
On Monday...Trump political adviser Justin Clark told NRSC executive director Kevin McLaughlin that any Republican candidate who followed the memo's advice shouldn't expect the active support of the reelection campaign and risked losing the support of Republican voters.
But the general thrust is clear, even for Republicans who aren’t running for the U.S. Senate. In the face of widespread criticism of the Trump administration for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, an effort is being made to shift pointed fingers toward the Middle Kingdom, where the virus originated.
Take the mailer just put out by state Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, who’s running for the Seventh District seat being given up by U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville. The stark headline: “Stop China’s lies!”
Among her promises: “End American reliance on goods manufactured in Communist China, especially medical supplies and lifesaving drugs.”
And: “Defund liberal groups like the World Health Organization that push for globalization and conspire with the Chinese!”
The latter caught the attention of Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, who narrowly lost the race for the seat in 2018. From an email Bourdeaux sent last night:
"Renee Unterman's call to defund the World Health Organization isn't a solution, it's a political talking point in search of a distraction. Senator Unterman has shown throughout this crisis that she'd rather shift blame away from President Trump and Governor Kemp's mismanaged response than listen to Georgia's public health experts and frontline medical professionals."
Unterman isn’t the only Georgia Republican hammering China. Mark Gonsalves, another Seventh District candidate, is out with a YouTube clip declaring that
One complicating factor in the GOP effort to heap the blame on China is that the unreliability of that country’s data was a known factor -- something should have been baked into early U.S. evaluations.
From an early March interview with Tom Price, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
At a G-20 summit, [Price] war-gamed a pandemic with other health care ministers and learned something important. "There are some nations that don't share the kind of information that's important to share," Price said. "China was one of them. They tend to be an insular society, a protective society."
***
Notice something else above. When addressing the pandemic, Democrats have become comfortable wrapping Gov. Brian Kemp and President Trump together, despite the pair's disagreement last week over reopening Georgia's economy.
A new 30-second ad that rolled out today by Teresa Tomlinson, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, condemns Kemp ("risking reopening), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (and "his bankruptcy push"), and Trump ("disaster") in a single phrase.
Then Tomlinson moves on to her real GOP target, Georgia’s senior U.S. senator: “While we fight an invisible enemy, David Perdue is an invisible senator.”
In reply, Georgia GOP exec director Stewart Bragg said Perdue was doing a “tremendous job” leading the state through turbulent times.
The new TV spot coincides with a sharper tone that has recently come from Tomlinson, a former two-term mayor of Columbus who has highlighted her elected experience over front-runner Jon Ossoff, an investigative journalist who has led the scant polls of the race.
“There’s no runway, there’s no learning curve,” she said at a recent virtual town hall. “Jon has been involved in documentary film-making. That’s not legislating. That’s not the type of public service a public official does. That’s a very serious distinction.”
Then she takes another swipe at the 33-year-old, mentioning he’s close to the 30-year-old age minimum to run for U.S. Senate.
“It’s not a starter job. And it’s not a business. People mistake that all the time. Government’s not a business. That’s the whole point of government,” she said, adding: “I am an expert skilled in pulling the levers of government.”
***
At least in public, Brian Kemp is holding President Donald Trump harmless for that White House criticism of the governor's approach to reopening businesses in Georgia. Instead, the governor aimed his barbs at the press:
When a reporter for NBC News asked Monday about the data supporting his decision, Kemp responded with an insult.
"I know it may be hard for NBC News to understand this, but all the data is available on the Department of Public Health website," Kemp said. "I appreciate what the president's doing. He said it best today — the media wants to continue to divide us."
Moments later, Kemp's public health commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, acknowledged that the state's data did not show Georgia was meeting the Trump administration's "full gating criteria" for reopening businesses.
***
Meanwhile, many of Georgia's mayors are continuing their persuasion campaign to slow the state's reopening. On CNN, Albany Mayor Bo Dorough was asked if Gov. Brian Kemp's order had put lives at risk. Said Dorough:
"I hope not. I hope I'm wrong. My concern is for my fellow Georgians. But more than that, the governor should have carved out an exception for places like Albany, where the infection rates continue to be exceedingly high."
***
And from her home in southwest Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom on Monday continued to express her objections -- this time with Trevor Noah of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
“This notion that we are Georgia of 1920 is not realistic. We are a major American city,” Bottoms said. “We have the world’s busiest airport, and so it’s not possible for us to completely separate and distance ourselves … We will know in the next two to four weeks if this social-slash-health experiment was a brilliant idea or it was the absolute worst thing that could have happened.”
Bottoms and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell will be on The Washington Post Live at 1:45 p.m. today to discuss their responses to the pandemic.
***
Gwinnett County bus drivers have served notice that they intend to hold a work stoppage on Thursday, protesting the lack of protective measures. The announcement has already entered the political realm. Kirkland Carden, a Democratic candidate for the Gwinnett County Commission, said he's already pushing for hazard pay for drivers, adequate testing, and a requirement that all riders don masks.
***
Whenever lawmakers return to the state Capitol, House Bill 879 may be the most popular legislative measure around -- whenever lawmakers return to the state Capitol. Introduced just as the coronavirus was shutting the place down in mid-March, the all-GOP bill would allow the home delivery of alcoholic beverages. The Newnan Times-Herald has details here.
One of the sponsors is state Rep. Kasey Carpenter, a Dalton restaurateur who reopened his business on Monday.
***
On the other hand, a group of more than 50 restaurant owners in Atlanta and Savannah have issued a joint statement published in today's editions of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in Tuesday's print and e-paper version, explaining why they've chosen to remain closed.
***
The non-binding questions that appear on Georgia's primary ballots offer clues about the next agenda items each party plans to push.
The Republican questions suggest the party is trying to prevent crossover voting in primaries and consolidate gains in local offices, particularly in parts of rural Georgia where Democrats have been pushed to the edge of extinction.
Along with a question about allowing a student’s education dollars to “follow to the school that best fits their needs” -- a proposition long opposed by public school systems -- there are these two queries:
“Should voting in the Republican primary be limited to voters who have registered as Republicans?” and “Should candidates for Board of Education be required to declare their political party?”
The questions on the Democratic ballot also suggest the scope of the party’s agenda. It seeks feedback on restrictions on “wasteful plastic items,” efforts to combat climate change and same-day voter registration.
There’s also this query, which could factor into a new push to restore voting rights for Georgia’s roughly 250,000 felons:
“Should every Georgian that has served their sentence for a crime they committed be allowed to have their voting rights restored?”
In December, a state Senate committee voted along party lines to recommend they remain disenfranchised after their release from prison.
Georgia is one of 22 states that denies felons the ability to vote after they've been released from prison until they fulfill all the obligations of their sentences, including probation and fees.
***
Count state Sen. Brandon Beach among the Republican senators who side with Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan for an earlier, May 14 date to restart the legislative session.
“If we’re not going to go back to work in May, we ought not get a paycheck in May,” he told one of your Insiders.
Meanwhile, Democratic state Rep. Scott Holcomb endorsed House Speaker David Ralston's push for a June 11 resumption. "Speaker Ralston is absolutely right in his approach—we need to get the latest and best data we can for the 2021 budget," the Atlanta Democrat said.
***
Stacey Abrams on Monday criticized the state of New York's decision to cancel its Democratic presidential primary election.
Although Joe Biden is now the presumed nominee, Abrams said in a post on Twitter that canceling the election as a measure to enforce social distancing sent a bad message.
"NY's decision to cancel its primary creates a false choice: asking voters to pick safety or participation in our democracy," Abrams wrote in a Twitter message. "This is wrong. Elections officials can hold safe, accessible elections, where voters cast ballots by mail or safely in person. #COVID19 is no excuse."
The cancelled election angered some supporters of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has conceded the contest and endorsed Biden, but wants to gather up enough delegates to impact the party platform in August.
Abrams has endorsed Biden and said she would serve as his running mate if asked.
"We must fight for our democracy as we face this pandemic," she wrote. "We cannot make voting less accessible or totally unavailable. I will be voting by mail for @JoeBiden in Georgia's 6/9 primary. New Yorkers should not have their own choice taken away."
