I will give this to Regan Arts: It won’t be slowed down by anything, not even multiple sources disowning involvement in one of its forthcoming books.
The controversial publishing venture sent out a mass email this week promoting the upcoming release of accused sexual predator Mark Halperin’s latest book, How to Beat Trump: America’s Top Political Strategists on What It Will Take.
“In 2016 too many Democrats lacked the ability to imagine Trump could be President and now as many lack the ability to imagine that he can be beaten in 2020,” the group’s email said. “Mark Halperin interviewed the nation’s most experienced political strategists to discover what they think the Democratic presidential nominee needs to do to win the 270 electoral votes required for victory.”
It adds, “More than seventy-five strategists were interviewed for HOW TO BEAT TRUMP, including Jill Alper, David Axelrod, Bob Bauer, Donna Brazile, James Carville, Tad Devine, Anita Dunn, Karen Dunn, Adrienne Elrod, Jennifer Granholm, Ben LaBolt, Jeff Link, Jim Margolis, Mike McCurry, Mark Mellman, Amanda Renteria, John Sasso, Kathleen Sebelius, Bob Shrum, Ginny Terzano, and David Wilhelm.”
Yes, about that: It should be noted here that many of those same “experts” have since disowned or walked back their involvement in Halperin’s book. In retrospect, it was a bad idea to try to rehabilitate the career of a man who stands accused of credible allegations of sexual misconduct, according to these same very savvy experts.
“Spoke with [Halperin] by phone once a few months ago about how to defeat Trump in the Midwest,” former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm tweeted in August. “Did not mean to hurt anyone, ever; should have done more research. My sincere apologies.”
A spokesperson for SKDKnickerbocker managing director Anita Dunn told CNN, “Anita cares about beating Donald Trump, that is the only reason she participated.”
“I’m not the author,” former Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman Donna Brazile also said in response to inquiries from CNN. “Ask Mark why he chose us.”
She added in a separate statement to the Daily Beast, “After a lot of emails, tough times for sure, I wanted to go on the record with my answers about how to defeat Trump. Many of my friends today are disappointed that I answered Mark’s call, but I did so after he understood where I was coming from.”
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 national political director, Amanda Renteria, told the Daily Beast, “As my record shows, I have no sympathy for people with a history of sexual harassment in the workplace and I’m not interested in rehabilitating anyone’s career. At the same time, women and people of color are worse off when our voices and experiences are left out of campaign histories like this.”
MSNBC contributor and former senior Hillary Clinton adviser Adrienne Elrod, for her part, told the same newsroom that her “singular professional focus is defeating Donald Trump in 2020.” However, she added, “if I had to do it again I would have been more thoughtful and respectful to the women who have been affected.”
Former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod tweeted, “By answering Halperin’s questions, I did not in any way mean to excuse his past, egregious behavior and, in retrospect, I regret responding at all.”
Naturally, none of this is mentioned in the Regan Arts email, which makes sense. They have a book to sell after all, and allegations of sexual abuse are kind of a downer.
