October 24, 2020
President Donald Trump's top advisers have plunged into a bitter round of finger-pointing and blame-shifting ahead of an increasingly likely defeat.
Accusations are flying in all directions and about all manner of topics — from allegedly questionable spending decisions by former campaign manager Brad Parscale, to how White House chief of staff Mark Meadows handled Trump's hospitalization for Covid-19, to skepticism that TV ads have broken through.
Interviews with nearly a dozen Trump aides, campaign advisers and Republican officials also surfaced accusations that the president didn't take fundraising seriously enough and that the campaign undermined its effort to win over seniors by casting Democrat Joe Biden as senile.
Finger-pointing is a common feature of campaigns that think they're losing, but it's happening at an uncommon level in this campaign. Shifting responsibility has been a staple of the Trump presidency — and his lieutenants are now following suit.
Senior Republicans say a culture of paranoia has developed in the waning days of the race, with fears mounting that they will be the targets of post-election attacks if Trump loses, which could damage their careers going forward.
Most of the jabs are about money. Campaign officials have accused Parscale of spending lavishly on items such as a $5 million Super Bowl ad and a Trump-branded sky banner that flew over swing-state beaches. Millions of dollars were spent on TV commercials during the early days of the pandemic when voters weren't receptive to political advertising, and on a massive political infrastructure built far in advance of the election season.
Some Republican officials are also angry at Meadows for how he managed Trump's hospitalization. The chief of staff undercut the White House messaging when he told reporters early on that Trump was "still not on a clear path to a full recovery."
The statement initiated a damaging news cycle, forcing the administration to assure the nation that Trump was in stable condition.
Officials also blame Meadows for not doing more to rein in Trump. Among the complaints: That he should have tried to stop Trump from giving Bob Woodward practically unfettered access as the pandemic intensified, and that he erred in encouraging Trump to hold in-person rallies. Others question why Meadows has so far failed to deliver in congressional negotiations on a coronavirus relief package and worry the inability to get checks to voters could damage the president in the election.
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