After weeks of struggling with responses to controversies that erupted suddenly, the White House communications team will have plenty of time to prepare for the fallout from former FBI Director James Comey’s highly anticipated testimony on Thursday.
During the congressional hearing, Comey is expected to accuse President Trump of attempting to suppress an investigation into Gen. Mike Flynn. This could present the embattled press shop with an opportunity to demonstrate that, given sufficient warning, it can defend the administration effectively. White House officials have pushed back on criticism of its recent messaging hiccups by noting the lack of advance notice provided to those tasked with answering to reporters.
But Comey’s testimony could also expose more serious weaknesses in the communications office if officials fail to prepare a robust strategy despite having so much time to get ready.
“There’s a big difference between drinking out of a firehose when you don’t know it’s going to be turned on as opposed to being prepared for the firehose to be turned on,” said Hogan Gidley, former spokesman for Mike Huckabee’s 2016 presidential campaign. “It’s still going to be difficult to drink that water…but the preparation…should give them ample opportunity to showcase just how talented the team is.”
White House spokesmen and women were reportedly blindsided by the news that Trump had removed Comey last month, and the resulting confusion left the president offering a different explanation for his decision to fire the FBI director than the one his representatives provided.
Other leaks and disclosures have hit the White House with little or no warning, preventing officials from lining up traditional defenses. Such was the case with the first reports of memos that Comey compiled in order to document what has been described as a series of inappropriate conversations between Trump and the former FBI director — including the one in which Trump allegedly asked Comey to drop the bureau’s probe of Flynn.
“I think the White House will have some time to try to get some surrogates in place to back up the president, if there are any that are willing to do that,” said Ryan Williams, former spokesman for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
“Basically, they’re going to have to find allies that are going to back up the the president’s version of events,” Williams said. “They have been unable to use surrogates in the past because they haven’t been given proper heads-up on major events.”
In the wake of the Comey memo report on May 16, for example, Fox News host Bret Baier admitted on the air that the network could not find a single Republican lawmaker to come on the show in defense of Trump.
The White House is reportedly weighing the creation of a “war room” designed to combat controversies related to the Russia probe. Although the administration has remained quiet publicly about who will staff the team and what its precise role will be, former campaign hands Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie are under consideration to spearhead the effort.
Alice Stewart, former communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, said the White House’s strategy for messaging the Comey hearing has already begun to take shape.
“Look at what they’re currently doing. Currently, they’re working to discredit Comey, and that’s what they have been doing since he was let go, and clearly they’re going to continue that course,” Stewart said.
“At the same time, either they or this outside team that’s going to work on responding to the Russia probe needs to develop a list of points — or talkers, as we call them — and organize surrogates to help drive that message on talk shows and radio, and draft op-eds for newspapers. That’s the kind of stuff that needs to get done now, because that’s what people are talking about,” Stewart added. “We’re going to be talking about this stuff for another week, so you have to give supporters and surrogates some ammunition to fight back on all this incoming fire on this topic.”
Trump has openly criticized his communications shop in recent weeks, and the departure of its top official, Mike Dubke, heightened speculation this week that a larger messaging overhaul is in the offing.
But supporters of the press office have argued the team has performed well under an impossible set of circumstances.
“This communications team has faced a level of incoming news and scrutiny that I think is unprecedented in modern-day politics,” Gidley said. “The upcoming test offers a chance for them to show the world…exactly what comms professionals already know: that it’s a difficult job and that they have risen to the test countless times already.”
Williams noted the press team’s preparation for the Comey hearing can only go so far due to Trump’s unpredictability.
“We don’t know how the president is going to respond; he may go on a Twitter rampage the minute after Comey stops speaking,” he said. “That’s not something they can guard against.”
“There’s only so much they can do to prepare for what Comey’s going to say,” Williams added. “There’s really nothing they can do to prepare for what the president will do if he goes off on a tangent again.”
Alex Conant, former communications director for Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, said he did not view the upcoming congressional hearing as a “test” for the White House press shop.
“Bracketing Comey’s testimony is pretty basic political communications strategy,” Conant said. “I would expect the White House to do whatever it needs to do to get its own message out that day.”
The administration’s efforts may be complicated by the fact that Comey’s expected allegations relate to a conversation that took place exclusively between Trump and the former FBI director. That could leave Comey and the president locked in a battle to persuade the public that the other man is lying.
“This essentially is going to boil down to his word versus the president’s word,” Williams said of Comey’s testimony. “Unfortunately, Comey’s credibility is in better shape at this point.”
Gidley said the White House should amass an army of allies, both internally and externally, to support the president’s side on the day of the hearing, which is slated for Thursday morning.
“Surrogates should be lined up in both chambers, the House and the Senate, their own team should be poised to go on every single morning show, every single daytime show, every primetime show, with — not talking points per se, but important factual information that exonerates, if you will — that pushes bask where the testimony needs to be pushed back.”
