After a sluggish start coordinating Republican countermessaging on impeachment, the White House stepped up its efforts on Friday with a nonstop deluge of talking points and background research as the former ambassador to Kyiv gave her evidence, according to a string of Republican Party sources.
President Trump resisted setting up a war room to fight allegations that he withheld aid from Ukraine to pressure Kyiv to find dirt on a political rival. And Republican sources said they frequently found themselves off balance, playing defense when hearings were being conducted behind closed doors.
That changed this week with new hires bolstering the White House communications operation and a shift to public hearings that allowed administration aides to better prepare, said a source involved in 2020 battleground states.
“I must have received 20 emails during the last testimony in terms of counterpoints, comparing it with the written testimony, the behind closed doors testimony, backgrounders on what these people know, what they don’t know,” said the source.
“It has made our lives a lot easier in terms of knowing what the pushback is and what the messaging is.”
The result was a nonstop stream of analysis, fact-checking, and real-time rebuttal on social media as Marie Yovanovitch, removed from her post as ambassador to Ukraine, testified before the House Intelligence Committee.
Allies, surrogates, and campaign groups unified around message blasts that pointed out that none of the witnesses so far had been on the president’s phone calls and that Ukraine had not even been aware that its aid was frozen at the time of the supposed quid pro quo.
Respectfully, this is all you need to know about Ambassador Yovanovitch’s testimony. She admits she can’t bring any firsthand knowledge to:
– The 7/25 phone call
– Discussions surrounding phone call
– Discussions surrounding delay of aidAnd this is the Democrats second witness pic.twitter.com/jVH2H0zcZs
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) November 15, 2019
In one message, seen by the Washington Examiner, supporters were sent a recap of questions and answers, pointing out that “Yovanovitch confirmed that she had no first-hand knowledge of President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelensky or other decisions relating to Ukraine.”
It also quoted an exchange that made its way to social media.
Devin Nunes, the most senior Republican on the committee, asked, “Did you ever talk to President Trump in 2019?”
“No, I’ve not,” came the response.
All you need to know about today’s #ImpeachingHearings:
?Yovanovitch has no primary knowledge of POTUS call
?She was dismissed before the call happened on 5/20/19
?Dems know they can’t prove quid pro quo
— America First (@AmericaFirstPAC) November 15, 2019
The messages ended on a positive note, pointing out that markets had closed on a record high.
Senior Republicans said the messaging was only one element of a more professional approach.
The White House recently appointed former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury Department official Tony Sayegh to oversee messaging operations. A senior GOP aide said Sayegh had already become a regular sight on Capitol Hill as he coordinated with party communications teams.
“This week has marked a new level of engagement and messaging,” said the aide.
“With the new people they’ve brought in, it has toughened up the whole operation and underscores what we need to be doing in the weeks and months ahead.”
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the effort had been weeks in the making.
“Our team has been prepping for a few weeks to prepare — rapid response, digital and proactive statements, to name a few,” she said. “It’s been a real team effort on the comms and press teams, plus it’s easy to message when the president has done nothing wrong.”
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said major surrogates attended a campaign meeting earlier in the week to discuss talking points.
“What we were trying to figure out is if this is all there is, because there’s been such a thin case that the Democrats have put forward, it definitely has you wondering if there’s some big surprise behind door number three,” he said. “So far, it appears there is no big surprise behind door No. 3.”
