Ahead of this week’s congressional special election in Pennsylvania, Republicans insisted that Conor Lamb (D) was a liberal Democrat who had no business representing a conservative district that backed Donald Trump by a 20-point margin. After Lamb’s apparent victory, GOP leaders decided they no longer agreed with their own talking points.
The Republican National Committee insisted that Lamb “essentially” ran as a Republican. A White House spokesperson said the Democrat “really embraced the president’s policies and his vision.”
As The Atlantic reported, Trump went a little further while reflecting on the race yesterday at a private fundraiser in Missouri.
“The young man last night that ran, he said, ‘Oh, I’m like Trump. Second Amendment, everything. I love the tax cuts, everything.’ He ran on that basis,” Trump said. “He ran on a campaign that said very nice things about me. I said, ‘Is he a Republican? He sounds like a Republican to me.’”
Look, I realize that the president, by his own admission, occasionally makes stuff up, but the GOP spin on Pennsylvania’s special election is getting more than a little silly.
Jon Favreau, Barack Obama’s former chief speechwriter, noted yesterday that Lamb’s campaign platform included several core tenets, including support for universal health care and opposition to Trump’s regressive tax plan. Perhaps most importantly, Lamb repeatedly emphasized his rejection of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) agenda, including GOP support for cuts to Social Security.









