Democrats could blow election to Trump, Sen Chris Murphy warns
Politico Article) Democrats need to get serious about foreign policy in 2020 or risk losing to Donald Trump.
That’s the blunt warning from Chris Murphy, a second-term Democratic senator with increasing sway on the Foreign Relations Committee who just maneuvered a bipartisan condemnation of Trump’s foreign policy through Congress. And Murphy, who’s making his case to several White House hopefuls, is increasingly worried his party is too focused on domestic policy and needs to train its fire on Trump’s haphazard national security record.
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The quickest way to pierce [Trump’s] image of toughness is to show what a laughingstock America has become across the world,” Murphy added. “Talking about national security and foreign policy is a perfect mechanism to go strike at the heart of Trump’s brand, on a topic that he can’t handle.”
The president was, indeed, laughed at when he spoke before the General Assembly at the United Nations. And he has frequently spooked allies and his own generals — be it with his surprise Syria pullout, his threats to blow up NATO, his repeated attacks on the European Union or his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate agreement.
Trump’s erratic policy shifts appear to be taking a toll with the public. While Republicans still maintain an edge over Democrats when it comes to national security and foreign policy, recent polls show that the gap is narrowing more than at any other point so far in the Trump era.
And so Murphy sees an opportunity for the party — and is pushing his half-dozen colleagues pursuing the White House to make America’s standing in the world more of a campaign issue.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/08/dems-fopo-murphy-1259699
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