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Ask any Democratic operative these days, including some working in the Biden White House, which Twitter account they find most damaging, and you’re likely to get the same answer.
@RNCResearch – gauntlet for the Republican National Committee to sling mud, tar opponents and try to shape news cycles – is perhaps the purest distillation of GOP politics in DONALD TRUMP era. And that’s for good reason. The conservatives behind the leak deliberately took a page from Trump’s war room when describing how they wanted to attack the President JOE BIDEN at the start of his tenure last year: Flood the zone and bully opponents.
The early intent, one RNC official recalled, was to be aggressive in an effort to pull Biden out of his political honeymoon. The brass eagerly complied.
“You’re speaking my language,” the official said to a colleague when they talked about having a really embarrassing account early last year. “That’s exactly what I want to do.”
The RNC says its account has played a role in bringing down Biden multiple times. But its hostile approach has not always been synonymous with precision. Over the course of the Biden presidency, the account, which has more than 242,000 followers and about 30 dedicated GOP pundits contributing to it, has been repeatedly hit by the arrows it has tried to throw.
This week, @RNCResearch highlighted a clip of Biden fighting to put on his jacket in the wind – an otherwise innocuous moment that led to complaints of triviality. The account also featured a clip of the president asking the Governor of Kentucky. ANDY BESHEAR for permission to speak. The idea was to treats Biden as a pushover. Many observers noted a president who behaved politely.
In April, @RNCResearch claimed Biden was kidnapped by a bird at an indoor event in Iowa. The Daily Mail ran with the story. But a Des Moines Register photographer in Menlo, Iowa, pointed out the president’s jacket it was actually tainted by distillers grains. In the same month, Biden stood by his ATF director STEVE DETTELBACH and joked that he “was in charge of the weather,” @RNCResearch tweeted that Dettlebach is Jewishimplying that the president was adopting anti-Semitic tropes.
In July, @RNCResearch asked if Biden, during a speech on climate change, had just announced that he had cancer. Washington Post fact checker, GLENN KESSLER, call The “dumb” tweet because Biden’s medical report revealed the removal of non-melanoma skin cancers long before he was president.
All told, West Wing Playbook counted roughly a dozen fact-checks on the account — including by PolitiFact, CNN AND WaPo – who have found false or misleading claims. Rather than admit inaccuracies, the team behind @RNCResearch has sometimes tried to stop calling them out. DANIEL DALE, CNN’s fact checker said in January the account blocked him after he followed him.
They have also accused those who complain about them of having the wrong priorities.
“If only the Biden White House and Democrats would focus on real issues instead of spending the day complaining about an RNC Twitter account,” the RNC spokesman said. EMMA VAUGHN. “Do your chores.”
To some extent, the account, with its attractive and combative offerings, has become a reflection of the current era of personality politics and hyper-partisanship. Her critics find her weird, the stuff of trolls.
“It’s like they handed the keys to some nihilistic teenagers who wanted to see how quickly they could get reporters to discount anything they say,” a Biden campaign alum told West Wing Playbook. “They think that singing about the deliberate lie makes them tough when really it just exacerbates the feedback loop.”
But for all the eyebrows they raise, the individuals behind @RNCResearch believe they’ve had the impact they intended, and that Biden — through deed and action — helped them do it. The account takes credit for advancing an image of Biden as Mr. Modern day Magoo, the elderly cartoon character.
“The philosophy is how are we getting a message out there that convinces people to vote Republican.” TOMMY PIGOTT, The RNC’s director of rapid response, who helps manage the account, told West Wing Playbook.
And it’s not just Biden they’re targeting. They also take credit for getting inside the head of the White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE.
Last month, the @RNCResearch account released a video of Jean-Pierre saying “I have nothing” 100 times when she had no answer for reporters. This was a Tuesday. Two days later, Breitbart White House reporter CHARLIE MUSCLE noticed that she had stopped using that phrase.
“We’re not there to get high numbers of videos,” he explained ZACH PARKINSON, RNC Deputy Communications Director and an alum of the Trump campaign and the White House. “It’s to boost voicemail.”
Biden’s allies, understandably, were not impressed.
“Republicans lying and desperately manipulating videos is a good thing,” said AMMAR MUSA, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, suggesting that Biden’s antics were an attempt to hide the GOP’s shortcomings. “They cannot defend their extreme agenda to put Medicare on the chopping block and sell out middle-class families to Big Pharma. They tried this for two years and all they got was 81 million Americans who voted for President Biden in the White House.
SEND US A MESSAGE – Are you GREG FOSTER, a White House data management analyst? We want to hear from you! And we’ll keep you anonymous if you want. Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we can include it tomorrow. Email us at [email protected].
This one is from Allie. Which president was the first to throw out a ceremonial pitch at a baseball game? Bonus points if you can guess the date!
(Answer at the end.)
POTUS IS OOO: What has Biden been up to since he and his family arrived Wednesday in Kiawah Island, SC? White House Pooler REBECCA MORIN of USA Today noted this afternoon that “there has been no update on POTUS’ schedule and the pool has not seen the president today.”
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WILL READ: Everything in this photo that chief of staff RON KLAINE was retweeted today by two separate #resistance-y accounts (the DNC also retweeted it yesterday).
WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE not I WANT YOU TO READ: This piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s ANDREW MAYCUTH noting that while gas prices are down, electricity prices are up. According to the article, Pepco’s average energy bill “would increase by 11.4% on Sept. 1 for most residential customers, or about $6.53 per month for a typical household bill.” The Inquirer also reported that Metropolitan Edison, which serves 560,000 customers in Southeastern Pennsylvania, will raise its rate by 18.4 percent.
I WANT TRUMP TO KNOW IT WAS ME: Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND defended the FBI’s investigation DONALD TRUMPMar-a-Lago Estate in Florida saying he “personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in the latter,” our KYLE CHENEY reports. The Justice Department on Thursday also moved to unblock parts of that order.
Rwanda Call: Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Rwanda, the Secretary of State ANTHONY BLINK condemned the authorities in the country for human rights concerns. MPs IGNATIUS SSUUNA there are more details on Blinken’s visit.
Speaking of BLINKEN: VEDANT PATELwho recently arrived stateside after a stint in the White House press shop, held the State Department’s daily briefing for the first time on Thursday. The meeting took place over the phone.
SRAMBLE OF MONKEY LEATHER: Although the Biden administration is in talks with multiple companies to stockpile millions of doses of monkeypox vaccine to combat the spread, ERIN BANCO AND ADAM CANCRYN report that it can take three to six months to prepare those doses for distribution.
Looking at the long term, the administration recommended that providers administer the monkeypox vaccine at one-fifth the normal amount to try to extend the supply without sacrificing efficacy.
ABOUT THOSE FEES… China’s recent moves around Taiwan have made the Biden administration rethink how it will handle fees for the country. That’s after the White House has already spent months weighing its options with the Trump-era tariffs that were put in place in 2018. Reuters’ JEFF MASON AND DAVID LAWDER report that the administration had been debating removing some fees or imposing new fees, but the duo reports that no decision has been made.
GAS POLICY: The national average price of a gallon of regular gas has fallen below $4, the lowest level since March but still much higher than when Biden took office. NYT ISABELLA SIMONETTI reports.
CDC lifts coronavirus guidance, signaling a strategic shift (WaPo’s Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach)
Doug Thornell will lead SKDK, an influential Democratic public relations firm often allied with the White House. (NYT’s Shane Goldmacher)
The Afghanistan deal that never happened (Lara Seligman of POLITICO)
Russia struggles to replenish its troops in Ukraine (AP)
President WILLIAM TAFT was the first president to ever throw out a ceremonial pitch at a Major League Baseball game. The April 14, 1910 throw was to the Washington Senators starting pitcher WALTER JOHNSON in the National Park in the country’s capital, according to History.com.
President would go on to autograph the ball for Johnson: “For Walter Johnson hopefully he can continue to be as formidable as he was in yesterday’s game. William H. Taft.”
A CALL – Have a more difficult question? Send us your best one about the presidents with a quote and we can feature it.
Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.
