Democrats are reportedly building a mountain of dirt on Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 election, and they’re sorting through thousands of lawsuits to do it.
A report from Axios this week noted that the Democratic National Committee is undertaking a massive opposition research effort against Trump for next year’s election, sorting through 7,000 different lawsuits filed against him from all 50 states.
The DNC is also painstakingly cataloging all of the promises he made over the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, including all the times he claimed that he would force Mexico to pay for the wall he would build along the U.S.-Mexico border. There has not yet been any new wall built during Trump’s presidency, and he has shifted away from forcing Mexico to pay and instead declared a national emergency so he could divert funding originally slated for military projects and use it to start construction on the wall.
As a source told the outlet, the DNC will deliver messages on a local level, letting voters know exactly how Trump broke promises to their communities.
“Let’s say he (Trump) goes to Youngstown, Ohio. We have everything he said, what he promised in 2016 to that community — maybe it’s ‘that bridge will be fixed’ — then we’ll show what’s actually happened since,” a source told the news outlet.
There will be a strong focus on voters who have been hurt by Trump’s policies, the report noted. The DNC is poring over local news reports — especially in swing states like Michigan, Arizona, and Florida — to find interviews with residents harmed by the trade war with China or other Trump administration policies.
“The Democratic National Committee has reportedly built a trove of opposition research against Trump in advance of the 2020 election, aiming to focus on Trump’s ‘performance as president, not his bigotry or awfulness.'” https://t.co/0J2juz23Lf
— Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) September 9, 2019
The report seems to show that the DNC is trying to hit Trump where he has been successful, targeting the swing states that Trump unexpectedly won in 2016 en route to what at the time was a shocking win. Trump’s campaign put a strong focus on these states in the last election, while Hillary Clinton was criticized for making few stops in states like Wisconsin, which she would ultimately lose. The DNC will be looking to avoid this mistake again in 2020 and is prepared to counter Trump’s messages targeting key voter groups in these states, the report suggests.
But the DNC also has disadvantages, including Trump’s three-year head start ahead of the eventual Democratic nominee. He took the unusual step of starting to campaign for 2020 immediately after taking office and has held a number of rallies in key swing states during his first two years in office.
