‘Political Malpractice:’ Politico’s Jonathan Martin Hammers Biden For Not Reaching Out to Anti-Trump GOP Leaders
Politico’s senior political columnist Jonathan Martin tore into President Joe Biden on Friday for not doing more to reach out to Republicans who have publicly said they will not vote for Donald Trump.
Martin opened his column by noting that former GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie decided this week not to run on a third-party “No Labels” ticket with a Democrat.
“How has Biden not called Christie, whom he’s known since the former governor was in student government as a University of Delaware undergraduate, to ask for his support? Or, if he thought that too soon or too direct, he could at least have asked Christie to get together. But that ask has not been made,” Martin wrote, adding:
It’s political malpractice. And Christie isn’t the only anti-Trump Republican or independent waiting for their phone to ring.
Prominent former GOP officeholders, from George W. Bush to Mike Pence to Paul Ryan, also haven’t been contacted.
The same goes for former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who, like Christie, flirted with a No Labels run. Asked in January if Biden ever contacted him, perhaps about an ambassadorship, Hogan said no.
MSNBC’s Chris Jansing spoke to Mike Memoli on Friday about Martin’s criticism and whether or not Biden will look to win over the center.
“Mike, what can you tell us about their plans to reach out to the middle?” Jansing asked.
“Well, President Biden raised a lot of money last night, and we get a sense today of how he’s going to spend that money. At this donor meeting he held today, his senior management team leadership team debuted an ad which is going right after Nikki Haley voters,” Memoli replied, adding:
This ad will include Donald Trump’s own words, calling her a ‘birdbrain,’ saying in response to a question from Garrett Hake that he doesn’t think he needs her voters.
And so this speaks to the demographic breakdown that they’ve been tracking very closely in all these primaries and caucuses, even since Nikki Haley has dropped out, where Trump’s support has been soft, where they think there are voters to be poached, and now they’re putting that on the airwaves as well.
Martin added in his column, “I reached out to every current Republican lawmaker who has refused to commit to Trump in the general election. Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Mitt Romney (Utah), Todd Young (Indiana), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) all said the same: they’ve not heard from Biden.”
“It is surprising. It’s especially surprising because President Biden does understand the Senate, he has personal relationships with some of us,” Collins replied to Martin, given Biden’s long history in the Senate.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
