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.

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.

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.

I spoke to Ben Jacobs for his New York Magazine piece on the Democratic fundraising explosion in the wake of RBG’s passing, and what–if anything–it means for November.

However, with voting already started in a number of states and with just over six weeks left, there are limits to what can be done. Liam Donovan, a veteran Republican strategist, told Intelligencerthat the impact was limited in most competitive races where campaigns were already amply funded. Instead, Donovan argued that this served as “a quantifiable metric of intensity” as well as a coping mechanism for liberal donors. As he put it: “What it says to me is they feel profoundly out of control, and what better way to get a sense of control by investing in these races; that’s what Democrats are harnessing. These guys are desperate for a way to assert some kind of control on a completely chaotic 2020 — to the tune of a cool $100 million.”

Read the full piece here.

I spoke to Jonathan Martin of the New York Times about a major prescription drug deal between the Trump Administration and the pharmaceutical industry that fell apart over late White House demands for “Trump Cards” that would be distributed to seniors in the home stretch of the campaign. Given the way things are going with the campaign, it’s no surprise that they’re passing up first downs and shooting for the end zone.

Even more puzzling is why the White House would not have taken a victory in hand that would have let the president extol his negotiating skills and crow about delivering for seniors.

Instead, they unveiled an executive order on a weekend that drew little coverage and is far harder for people to grasp than industry-subsidized cost relief for consumers.

“It’s objectively imprudent,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist. “But when you need to change the trajectory of the race, you have to be willing to take risks.’’

Click here to read the full piece.