NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with political strategist Alex Conant about President Trump’s tense meeting with Republican senators on Capitol Hill.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Let’s go back to President Trump’s dustup with the Congress and what difference could it make. I’m going to ask Alex Conant. He works closely with Republicans as a strategist. He’s been a communications lead for several presidential and U.S. Senate campaigns. He’s also a senior partner with Precision Strategies. That’s a public affairs firm. Alex, good morning.
ALEX CONANT: Good morning.
MARTIN: OK, so Senator Bill Cassidy seemed to confirm the media reports that there was a shouting match with President Trump during yesterday’s lunch on Capitol Hill. And people might remember that Trump did help defeat Cassidy’s reelection bid when he endorsed his primary opponent. But then the Senator turned around and changed his vote on the war powers resolution, as did Rand Paul, who voted present. So what does that tell us?
CONANT: Well, I think it tells us that things got pretty tense yesterday at the Senate. As Franco was just saying, all the Senators, House Republicans as well, thought that they were going to be there to celebrate with Trump a rare bipartisan bill on their No. 1 issue in the country, which is affordability and specifically housing affordability. And instead, Trump was more focused on the upcoming elections, his voter ID law, canceled the bill signing and then went to lunch with the Senate Republicans, where he lectured them for an hour about a vote earlier this week about the war powers act. And it sounds like Bill Cassidy wasn’t having it and spoke up and got into a bit of a shouting match with Trump.
This doesn’t serve anybody good. And I think there was recognition on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue yesterday afternoon that this is not how we want to run the Republican Party. JD Vance, the vice president, invited Bill Cassidy to the White House last night. They had a conversation. And then after that, Bill Cassidy returned to the Senate and basically reversed his vote from the day before on the war powers act and supported the president, which they had done previously as well.
MARTIN: So, look; if you’re a Democrat, the campaign ad writes itself, doesn’t it? I mean, you know, from their perspective, you know, the president wants to make it harder for you to vote rather than make it easier for you to live. So how do they compensate for that?
CONANT: Yeah. Yeah. I’m not sure they’re going to conflate the two issues. But there’s no question that affordability is going to be the defining issue of the midterm elections. And even six months ago, White House officials were telling me, we have to win the affordability argument or we’re not going to win this election. And so that’s why they passed the housing affordability bill.
I think it’s important to note this housing affordability bill will almost certainly still become law. Trump has not said he’s going to veto it, and if he doesn’t sign it, it automatically becomes law in 10 years – excuse me, in 10 days. So I think this will still become law. You’ll still see Republicans running on it this fall. It’s just a whole lot messier now that they didn’t have the signing ceremony with the president to run in the ads with them.
MARTIN: Sure. But I’m saying – you don’t conflate the issues, but if you were a Democrat, you certainly would, wouldn’t you? You certainly would. You’d say that’s what his priorities…
CONANT: Sure. Of course.
MARTIN: The president was specifically asked, is this – why is this more important to you than signing this bill?
CONANT: Yes (laughter). They will. The Democrats are going to say he’s more focused on redecorating the White House, on rebuilding the East Wing, on the reflecting pool, on the Iran war than what voters care about. Of course. We know Democrats are going to be doing that. And, frankly, it’s a very salient message, which is why Republicans are trying to strengthen their own arguments about the effectiveness of our tax cuts, possibly doing more tax cuts later this fall, and this housing affordability bill. They want to say, no, we are doing things to lower prices.
Meanwhile, as Trump, you know, expressed with great reservations, oil prices are coming down. We expect gas prices to come down soon. Inflation is relatively moderate, aside from the last couple weeks where we had the Iran war, which hopefully is coming to a conclusion. So I think the White House’s hope is we can make things more affordable before this fall and salvage the midterms.
MARTIN: So talk about the SAVE America Act, if you would, for a minute there. Why is this so important to the president, who is, after all, a lame duck? He can’t run again. Does he genuinely believe that Republicans can’t hold onto the House or the Senate, for that matter, without it?
CONANT: I think he genuinely believes that the 2020 election was stolen, which I know most of your listeners don’t believe. But the president does believe that. And so I think he views this bill as an acknowledgment that, if it is signed into law, that there’s problems with our elections. And that’s why it’s so important to him. Also, I think he’s laying the groundwork to say that the midterm elections, if they don’t go well for the Republicans, were also stolen if this bill wasn’t passed, which I think is why it’s another priority of his.
This bill would federalize elections effectively, which ironically is something that Democrats have long supported and Republicans have long opposed. Republicans have taken the more federalist approach, saying that elections should be run at the state and local level. Trump thinks that state and local elections are letting them – officials are letting elections to be stolen. He feels very strongly about this. And…
MARTIN: But it would also require…
CONANT: Yeah.
MARTIN: …Expensive citizenship documents to register to vote. It would also impose a lot of new requirements. So is that, I’m curious…
CONANT: Of course, which is part – yeah.
MARTIN: No, but why is it – I’m curious. We only have about 30 seconds left. So the Republicans who oppose it, why do they oppose it?
CONANT: Because they believe in federalism. They believe that states should continue and local governments should continue to run our elections, that we shouldn’t federalize elections. This is a very consistent position for most Republicans. Also, in order to actually pass it, you would have to blow up the filibuster in the Senate because you need 60 votes. And you still have a lot of Senate Republicans who simply don’t want to change the institution’s rules.
MARTIN: Before – just really 10 seconds here. Is this the kind of fight that actually resonates with voters out in the field? Like, if you go out and do polling, are people noticing this?
CONANT: Probably not. But they do notice the affordability issue. And the failure of Republicans to deliver on affordability issues, you know, especially if Trump were to veto this bill, you know, I do think is something that breaks through.
MARTIN: That is Alex Conant. He’s a Republican strategist. He’s with Precision Strategies. Alex, thanks so much.
CONANT: Good to be with you.
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