House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arrived at her weekly news conference determined to talk about saving the Affordable Care Act. She was flanked by 15 uniformed nurses and spoke from a lectern with a sign reading “#ProtectOurCare.”
But after just one question on her chosen topic, reporters moved on to other subjects: President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud, Trump’s plans for a new border wall, Trump’s desire to ban refugees from Muslim countries and Trump’s hiring freeze.
Pelosi’s responses grabbed headlines. Her warning about repealing Obamacare did not.
The scene, which played out Wednesday in front of eight television cameras, underscores the stark challenge Democrats face in getting their message out in the early days of an administration that is generating rapid-fire headlines – sometimes shifting the story line several times a day.
Since taking office just a week ago, the new Republican president has issued a slew of attention-grabbing executive actions, on topics as far flung as pipeline construction and global abortion policy, caused uproars with comments on Twitter that no one saw coming and dominated the conversation with off-the-cuff musings about crowd sizes and voter fraud.
With a Supreme Court pick coming next week, growing discord with Mexico and a renewed debate about torture, there’s no sign of things settling down anytime soon.
The dynamic makes it difficult for Democrats to break through the noise with sustained push back on any one of these issues, let alone mount a campaign around some of their own priorities – and expect the media to pay attention.
Aides say Trump’s primary aim has been to show that he is a “man of action,” as White House counselor Kellyanne Conway put it in a tweet this week. But others also see a deliberate strategy meant to keep Trump’s detractors unsettled – not unlike what he did during the presidential campaign.
“It’s very much a part of how he does business,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. “He’s not going to give people a chance to catch their breath before he moves on. It’s part of how he operates. He likes to keep political opponents back on their heels.”
During the campaign congressional Republicans often balked at being asked to respond to the latest controversy stirred by Trump, but now some in the GOP are noting the benefits of this style when it comes to drowning out the opposition.
“You have so much going on at once, it’s hard to find one thing to be critical of,” said Republican strategist Doug Heye.
On a day this week when Trump was particularly prolific, Jared Leopold, the communications director for the Democratic Governors’ Association, acknowledged a dilemma.
“I can’t even decide which executive order to speak out on today,” he said.
He wound up issuing a lengthy news release about the steadfast opposition of Democratic governors to Trump’s plan to turn Medicaid into a block-grant program, calling it “a scheme that would throw state budgets into disarray and threaten health care benefits for millions.”
Much of the media had already moved on to other things, Leopold acknowledged, but he said the decision reflected a desire to try to stay focused on issues with the most impact on real people.
One of the new challenges facing Democrats is finding the discipline to disregard many of the less weighty things the president says, Leopold and others suggested.
“I think the flurry of activity its having its desired effect,” said Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, chairman of the DGA. “I worry that it is a long-term subterfuge to make sure people aren’t paying attention to the real issues.”
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, argued it would be a mistake for Democrats to engage Trump on his terms.
“While Trump floods the zone, we need to have a consistent, compelling message,” he said. “Our side will be at its weakest if we’re offering ad hoc responses to issue after issue.”
