MarketWatch: Amid ruins of stimulus talks, Trump, Pelosi and McConnell trade blame

I spoke to Jonathan Nicholson for his MarketWatch piece on the apparent sputtering of COVID relief negotiations in the wake of President Trump’s abrupt announcement that he was walking away from the table.

Liam Donovan, principal with Bracewell LLP’s Policy Resolution Group, said the White House’s lack of focus helped sink the talks.

“The apathy and ambivalence from the White House made for a leadership vacuum that sent GOP members scattering in every direction depending on their individual political calculations. Republicans didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory here, but in the end Donald Trump owns this failure because he had everything to gain, and nothing to lose, ideologically or otherwise. In that sense, the tweet was a fitting coda,” he said in an email.


Read the full piece here.

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NYT: Trump’s Campaign Saw an Opportunity. He Undermined It.

I spoke to Maggie Haberman of the New York Times about the political opportunity the Trump campaign sees in the President’s COVID diagnosis–and how their strategy has been complicated by his approach.

“With four weeks remaining and nearly four million Americans already casting their votes, it’s awfully late to change perceptions about President Trump or his performance,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist.

“And to the extent voters are open to reassessing their views, the president’s video dispatch from Walter Reed reflected the challenge of what his campaign seeks to do: The initial glimpse of humanity and humility quickly gives way to a rambling monologue that undermines the whole endeavor.”

Read the full piece here.

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TIME: How Donald Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis Could Change The Presidential Race

I spoke to TIME‘s Molly Ball about what President Trump’s COVID diagnosis might mean for the Presidential race.

But the President’s diagnosis with a deadly virus and subsequent hospitalization now puts the pandemic—and his reckless handling of it—squarely in the spotlight in the closing phase of the campaign. “This race has been wildly stable, but this does really add to the sense things are getting out of control,” says GOP lobbyist Liam Donovan. “Even when the polls were ugly, he felt invincible to a lot of people. Now they’re starting to come to grips with the fact that there’s no more time to turn things around. Reality is cracking the force field.”

Read the full piece here.

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