Interesting tidbit.
Javelin is repping Bender, and they’re quite good at this drip-drip cadence. Props to them.
Here’s a new excerpt about the 2020 GOP convention and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas):
One of the prime-time speakers lined up for night three, “Land of Heroes,” was [Rep.] Dan Crenshaw, the thirty-six-year-old former Navy SEAL, who’d lost his right eye in Afghanistan. …
During the 2016 race, Crenshaw posted on social media that Trump was an idiot, insane, and ignorant. But in his first eighteen months in Washington, Crenshaw voted against both articles of impeachment against Trump, then after the coronavirus lockdowns were about a month old, Trump retweeted a video Crenshaw recorded blaming China for the contagion instead of the president. “BRILLIANT,” Trump wrote.
By the time the convention rolled around, Crenshaw’s past criticisms of Trump were forgotten. But maybe they shouldn’t have been.
This freaking guy, Trump advisor Cliff Sims thought to himself after reading Crenshaw’s prepared remarks for the RNC Convention. Sims had read thousands of words of convention speeches at that point, and written just as many. Surely his eyes must just be getting tired. He must have just missed it.
Sims pressed Command+F on his iMac and searched for the word “Trump.” Nothing. He erased that, and searched for the word “president.” Nothing.
Sims had had to Trumpify a handful of convention speeches—adding some of the president’s accomplishments and additional superlatives. For Crenshaw, Sims added a few mentions of Trump to fit the military veteran’s remarks, including one that would credit Trump for taking out ISIS and a final line that endorsed Trump: “And by voting for Donald Trump on November third, you can be sure it will continue to be protected by the president as well.”
Sims attached the revised remarks to an email, noted that he’d made a few edits, and hit Send.
“Hey, Cliff,” came a reply from Justin Discigil, Crenshaw’s communications director, a few hours later. “Just spoke with my boss. He feels very strongly about the speech. The speech is written in his words, and he drafted it completely himself.”
Sims called Discigil. “Dude. What is going on?” Sims asked as soon as the aide answered. “If you think your guy is going to speak at the president’s convention without mentioning him and no one is going to notice, you’re crazy.”
The speech was in the middle of a political convention, but Crenshaw wanted to keep his remarks free from partisanship. The campaign had asked him to speak about military heroes. He’d had friends killed in action and didn’t view their valor at the province of Republicans or Democrats. Crenshaw was ready to walk if Trump World tried to take over his speech. But there was also a political calculation on the part of the Texas Republican. “The president is the biggest liability to our reelection,” Discigil said.
Sims lost his mind. Why would Crenshaw agree to speak at the convention? Why would he think he could have it both ways? Crenshaw eventually agreed to credit “the president” for supporting the military but never mentioned Trump by name. Inside the campaign, Miller and Clark decided not to elevate the issue to Trump, and instead bumped Crenshaw out of a prime-time slot without informing the congressman about the change. After the speech aired, Sims texted Discigil the links to every tweet he saw mentioning the conspicuous lack of Trump mentions in the congressman’s speech. Discigil never responded.
Do something positive.
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