From a story on politico.com headlined “Three Questions With David Urban about the 2024 election”
David Urban, a senior adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign who now serves as the managing director for BGR Group, a Washington-based lobbying and communications firm.
What are some of the key policy issues that will shape the Republican primary?
If you look at what current candidates and potential candidates are talking about, everybody seems to have a great deal of overlap in terms of policies: it’s immigration, border security, getting control of spending, the fentanyl crisis on the border … but the thing that jumps out to me immediately is the U.S. position on Ukraine. That’s one of the biggest differences among the candidates.
You’ve seen former President Trump make statements, you saw Gov. DeSantis, although not a candidate yet, stake out his position. And then others, like former Secretary of State Pompeo and Vice President Pence, have said ‘hey, look, we’re for continuing to support Ukraine. It’s not a blank check. But we believe we can support them.’
And maybe Social Security will be an issue. Republicans aren’t obviously looking to end Social Security, but I think there’s been a recognition that Social Security as we know it is not going to be solid in the future … You know, President Trump has said, ‘I’m not putting anything off the table’ and others may say, ‘hey, look, we need to actually look at these fiscal issues.’
What effect might the Trump/DeSantis relationship have on the primary?
You’ve seen the former president really wading back into the 2016 style with nicknames and a very aggressive attack posture, trying to take down Ron DeSantis with ad hominems, as opposed to policy disputes. The former president has labeled him as Ron DeSanctimonious, or Meatball Ron, or whatever name he chooses to use on that day. Trump largely ignores some of the policy successes that DeSantis has made. Hopefully, those kinds of ad hominem attacks won’t devolve further. I think Americans deserve to have a full throated debate on the issues versus just a lot of shouting and name calling.
Which Republican candidate would be most difficult — and easiest — for Biden to run against in the 2024 race?
Whomever the nominee is will be incredibly difficult to run against for President Biden. It’s not necessarily his age … I think it’s his record. Biden was able to fool Americans into thinking that he was a moderate, unifying force, when really, he was progressive, left of Bernie Sanders, in Joe Biden’s clothing. So I think any Republican will have an easier time in 2024 than they did in 2020 running against a Biden-Harris ticket. There’ll be real questions about his viability for the entire term [and] there will be questions about whether Kamala Harris is up to be President of the United States, so I think take your pick.
Tim Scott is a very interesting character, he’s a really nice guy and a persuasive speaker … He’s young, he eviscerates the Democrats’ narrative on race. Chris Christie, would be another knife fighter, Ron DeSantis would do an incredible job … and even if it’s Trump, people say ‘well if it’s Trump versus Biden, he’s going to lose’ and I don’t buy that. People saw Joe Biden as a different person in 2020 than they do now and there’s a lot of buyer’s remorse around America.
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