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.