The House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), accidentally released internal emails to reporters showing intraparty disagreements over how to handle talking about former President Donald Trump, as the party starts to ramp up campaigning for the midterm elections, according to reports.
The National Journal’s Hotline’s Wake-Up Call reports an internal email exchange between staff members at the DCCC that showed concern over campaign material that highlighted Trump’s name, fearing it could be “stoking the former president’s base.” The press release was apparently sent to reporters on Thursday and had the subject line “SIX MONTH REVIEW: LIE, CHEAT, STEEL.” The email reportedly contained “an internal back-and-forth between the committee and a campaign staffer over wording and strategy.”
The report further explained that when editing a draft release that was apparently sent by a staffer for the campaign of former California Rep Harley Rouda, a researcher from the DCCC had “pushed back on a line invoking Rep. Michelle Steel’s (R-CA 48) vote against impeaching Trump,” according to the report. The report showed the staffer has asked:
Do we think highlighting her vote not to impeach trump is helpful? In midterm with him out of WH, not sure how much we want to keep highlighting him and give the Trump base a reason to turnout.
Rouda is looking to have a rematch between Steel in the midterm elections.
The National Journal reported, “Rouda’s campaign and the DCCC did not return requests for comment by deadline.”
In another part of the email, a different researcher for the DCCC reportedly tried to push back at the organization, calling the freshman Republican lawmaker “QAnon Congresswoman” in the release. The researcher said, “she hasn’t personally expressed support for QAnon,” to which the staffer then said, “‘divisive’ or ‘do-nothing.’”
The report then emphasized that the Rouda campaign staffer said Rouda himself had been the one to request that the campaign include the nickname for Steel. The National Journal reported the nickname impeachment line remained in the final draft reporters had been sent out on Thursday.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Communications Director, Michael McAdams, responded to the news breaking by saying on Twitter, “Whenever you think @spmaloney‘s @dccc crew reaches a new low they come back and do something dumber.” He added, “Not only did the @dccc blast out their own internal back and forth to their entire press list…they’re letting losing campaigns dictate their messaging strategy.”
Another spokesman, Mike Berg, additionally said, “The most incompetent organization in Washington strikes again” when talking about the DCCC’s leak.
The DCCC reportedly declined to give any further comment on the matter to the Huffington Post.