This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 8 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
Last month, Donald Trump looked ready to cruise back to the Oval Office. And now, Republicans can’t get people to stop calling them weird. Trump is melting down at Mar-a-Lago as he watches his poll lead evaporate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump is melting down at Mar-a-Lago as he watches his poll lead evaporate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
At a time like this, a lot of campaign gurus might throw their old playbook out the window. But not Chris LaCivita — senior adviser to the campaign, known by insiders as one of Trump’s top guys and the former president’s co–campaign manager.
For two decades, LaCivita has connected big Republican donors with candidates in trouble and helped them win with cutting personal attacks against their opponents.
It’s a weird career niche that started with one dark money campaign. Back in 2004, a Super PAC by the name of “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” helped sink John Kerry’s presidential bid with a series of ads attacking the Democratic candidate’s military record.
And those ads were the work of LaCivita.
LaCivita’s attacks on Democratic candidates have, at times, even made his Republican clients uncomfortable. Early in his career, reporters described him as a “Republican hit-man,” using words like “hyperactive,” “manic” and “renegade.”
And now, it appears LaCivita is running the old playbook, orchestrating the right-wing attacks on the 24-year military career of Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walls of Minnesota.
It appears LaCivita is running the old playbook, orchestrating the right-wing attacks on the 24-year military career of Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walls of Minnesota.
I’ve already debunked those attacks. They are gross. So far, outside of the angry right-wing social media hellscape, they aren’t really landing the way the attacks on Kerry did.
But there’s more: The guy who made those attacks against Kerry possible 20 years ago was a donor named Harlan Crow. Yes, that Harlan Crow: the billionaire who has lavished gifts on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for decades. Crow ultimately gave LaCivita’s “Swift-boat” group tens of thousands of dollars. What’s to stop him from doing that again? It’s also worth mentioning that LaCivita isn’t just a Trump campaign aide. This year he also became the de facto COO of the Republican National Committee, which gives him control over its campaign spending. It’s said everything old is new again … that includes in politics. Join Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and many others on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Brooklyn, New York, for “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024,” a first-of-its-kind live event. You’ll get to see your favorite hosts in person and hear thought-provoking conversations about what matters most in the final weeks of an unprecedented election cycle. Buy tickets here.
Chris Hayes hosts “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday through Friday on MS NOW. He is the editor-at-large at The Nation. A former fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Hayes was a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation. His latest book is “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” (Penguin Press).
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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