Two years ago this month, Donald Trump’s re-election campaign confronted a good problem: It had so much money, the Republican operation hardly knew what to do with it all. It led the then-president and his team to buy Super Bowl ads.
And while that was unusual in its own right, what was even more surprising was the message of the commercials. Trump might’ve been expected to focus on one of his core issues, but instead, the incumbent’s Super Bowl ad focused on a relatively obscure legislative victory on a bill called the First Step Act.
“People talk about criminal justice reform,” the commercial said. “President Trump got it done.” In case anyone missed the commercial, the Republican promoted the ad on Twitter during the game — five times.
As we discussed in 2018, the reform package was worthwhile, though fairly modest in its scope. The idea was to expand eligibility in the Fair Sentencing Act, ease mandatory-minimum sentences, and increase “credit” programs that would enable some federal inmates to earn early release. It only affected about a tenth of the nation’s prison population — targeting federal facilities exclusively — but as the name implied, it was a worthwhile “first step.”
Jared Kushner personally helped lobby on behalf of the legislation, and it was the then-president’s son-in-law who saw it as a political winner.
Two years and two weeks after the Super Bowl ad aired, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas has settled on a new message: One of the few victories of the Trump era was Democrats’ fault. HuffPost noted:
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday accused Democrats of being insufficiently supportive of law enforcement, citing in part their backing of a prison reform bill President Donald Trump championed and signed into law in 2018.
“It’s your party that voted in lockstep for the First Step Act,” the Arkansan said on the Senate floor yesterday, pointing at Democrats.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, visibly gobsmacked, reminded Cotton, “The Republicans were in the majority…. Donald Trump signed it into law!”
The Illinois Democrat’s argument had the benefit of being true. It was Republican leaders who brought the legislation to the Senate floor in December 2018. It was also Republican leaders who voted for the bill, which passed 87 to 12. And it was a Republican president who pushed for the bill, signed the bill, and boasted about the bill during the 2020 Super Bowl. Confronted with these pesky details, Cotton felt compelled to concede, “Yes, it’s true that President Trump signed the First Step Act. It was the worst mistake of the Trump administration. Yes, it’s true that a number of Republican senators voted for it. They were wrong.” As Cotton positions himself for a national campaign, he’s settling on a striking message: The Arkansan believes Trump and his Republican allies are simply too liberal on crime. There was a degree of irony to the circumstances. The Democratic majority yesterday was trying to confirm six federal prosecutors and two U.S. marshals. Ordinarily, these votes are quick and easy. Yesterday, Cotton blocked these law enforcement nominees, while claiming to be championing the interests of law and order.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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