In the wake of last week’s tornadoes that devastated multiple regions of Mississippi, Chris McDaniel was called out twice by writers of the state’s largest newspaper:
In the wake of one of the worst natural disasters in Mississippi history, U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel came off every bit as tone-deaf and Washington-centered as he’s accused incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran of being.
As 15 tornadoes tore through the state Monday, it appeared to be politics as usual for the McDaniel campaign. He was attending or planning “meet-and-greets,” and his campaign was streaming messages about McDaniel appearing on “The Blaze,” being endorsed by a political group and other campaign fodder.
Then on Tuesday morning, as people in the state he wants to represent in Congress were climbing through wreckage and finding and identifying those who lost their lives, McDaniel was given a national audience, on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”
McDaniel made no mention of the devastation in his state. He was focused on illegal immigration and criticizing Cochran.
He did note that “all eyes are on Mississippi” right now, but he was referring to his tea party-fueled challenge of a longtime powerful incumbent Republican.
McDaniel at one point in the interview said, “For a change, instead of playing political games, let’s focus on what really matters.”
Indeed.
He did get Ingraham’s endorsement during the interview, and she called him “the closest thing to Jeff Sessions I’ve come across.”
The McDaniel campaign didn’t appear to shift into thoughts-and-prayers-are-with-our-fellow-Mississippians mode until later Tuesday, after my colleague Sam Hall ripped into them on clarionledger.com.
Most of the state’s other politicians, including Cochran, had shut down their political machinery and shifted into disaster mode, pledging all the help they can get for those affected. McDaniel missed a golden opportunity to appear, well, all senatorial and statesmanlike.
Mississippi politics 101 would have seen him out, shirt sleeves rolled up and tie off, trying to help those in need. Or at the least taking a break from hardball politicking and campaigning.
McDaniel is smart and energetic and has been working his tail off crisscrossing the state campaigning from sunup until late night. Much of this blunder is probably attributable to campaign handlers. But folks hammered by storms probably wouldn’t parse such details.
Note to McDaniel campaign: You folks need to have a long sit-down meeting and decide your platform on natural disasters in Mississippi. What with waffling about support of Katrina relief and this, quite frankly, McDaniel is starting to look like he’s not a good man to have in a storm.
As the GOP Senate primary enters its final month, McDaniel’s campaign still appears focused on appealing to the hard-right, tea party-type folks in the Republican Party. But he’s had them locked down from the get-go. They’re fired up, mad and ready to vote against Cochran.
To win, McDaniel is going to have to broaden his appeal and make more people want to vote for him, not just against Cochran.
And when a close-knit, rural state like Mississippi gets hit with a major disaster, a politician needs to remember the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
When tornadoes were ripping through central and north Mississippi yesterday, I wasn’t all that surprised to see an email from Chris McDaniel’s campaign jump into my inbox. I assumed that it was a typical “our thoughts and prayers” email that is common.
Instead, it was a planning email announcing some upcoming campaign stops, including meet-and-greet events in DeSoto and Madison counties for today. It hit me the wrong way, and I almost fired off a snarky little tweet and posted something talking about how thoughtless and asinine it was to send out campaign emails on a day when Mississippi is suffering so much bad weather and loss.
But I let it go. The main reason: I wasn’t going to hammer McDaniel because one of his staffers was tone-deaf to what was happening outside the campaign bubble. Besides, it wasn’t a political email; just a planning piece. (Would have been smart to cancel those appearances today, though…)
Then the campaign sent out another email today, and that was the last straw.
“McDaniel Signs FAIR Immigration Reform Pledge, Calls on Sen. Cochran to Sign” is the subject of the email.
Republican Chris McDaniel, candidate for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, today announced he has signed the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) pledge to enact meaningful immigration reform aimed at restoring traditional immigration rates and protecting America’s interests, economic and otherwise.
“I am honored to stand along side FAIR and fight with them for common-sense immigration reform,” said McDaniel. “With tens of millions of adults sitting out of the workforce as a result of depressed wages and a sluggish economy, it is vital conservative Republicans stand and fight to complete the border fence. Sadly, career politicians like Thad Cochran repeatedly vote not to fund the border fence and encourage de facto amnesty,” McDaniel continued.
So, while the people of Tupelo, Louisville, Richland, Pearl, Brandon and places in between are trying to locate loved ones, reclaim lost personal treasures and grasp the reality of the devastation that has ripped across this state, Chris McDaniel is trying to score political points.
You remember when McDaniel said, “I’m not going to do anything for you” in relation to disaster relief? He was telling the truth.
Updated: A McDaniel supporter who didn’t like my post said I should look at the Mississippi Democratic Party’s Twitter feed for right after the storm. So I did. All last night was storm-related, just like state GOP. Today, six tweets: one storm-related, one overtly political, one about a meeting, one about voter registration and the others about an equality resolution. The state GOP: all storm-related.
State Democrats should give politics a rest as well. State GOP is doing it right. Still doesn’t change a single thing about what McDaniel and his campaign did, though, does it?