Perhaps I missed your question because it ended up in my spam folder is the modern equivalent excuse for the dog ate my homework.
Either way, that is the defense the Michael Grimm campaign used for being missing in action yesterday when KCP polled the top candidates for New York’s 11th Congressional District seat on where they stood concerning President Trump‘s recent trade actions to negotiate a better fair trade agreement with China.
U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan (R-Southern Brooklyn, Staten Island), called his primary opponent out on the carpet today for failing to respond to the question.
Donovan spokeswoman Jessica Proud noted that while Grimm was in office as a Congressman he supported a number of free trade agreements that Trump called bad deals and made a flash point issue during the 2016 presidential election.
“Michael Grimm’s refusal to support the president’s efforts to strengthen America’s economy through fairer trade agreements with China speaks volumes,” said Proud. “When he was in Congress, he was part of the establishment that created all these bad deals, putting American companies and workers at a disadvantage. He’s so out of touch on this issue, even our Democratic opponents agree with the President’s efforts.”
About an hour after Donovan’s campaign put out this statement, KCP recieved an email from Grimm’s campaign apologizing for the delayed response saying the KCP inquiry inadvertently ended up in the spam email. It then added Grimm’s following response to the question:
“I am pleased to see President Trump taking the bold, decisive action we have so sorely lacked over the course of the Obama Administration. Protecting America’s workers and businesses was always my first priority in Congress, and I broke with the Washington establishment when early on I led the pushback against the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership,” said Grimm.
“President Trump is a savvy negotiator and realist, and he understands that the Chinese government will continue taking advantage of the American economy unless we show some resolve and push back. My opponent, Dan Donovan, has only been part of the problem by undermining President Trump’s ability to lead on trade and many other issues by voting against every single one of the President’s major initiatives, including his wildly successful economic agenda,” Grimm added.
Despite the brouhaha, Grimm remains a formidable challenger to Donovan, who first won the seat in a 2015 special election. As the June 26 primary and November general Congressional midterm elections inches closer, it is becoming clearer that civil discourse in the campaigns will not play a deciding role in its results.
Jeffrey Feldman, Executive Director of the Kings County Democratic County Committee, put the growing lack of civil discourse firmly on the shoulders of the current administration in power.
“The level of discourse in America has broken down since Donald Trump has occupied the White House,” said Feldman. “Much of what we used to refer to as `political civility’ has been either dashed against the lots or escaped out the window.”
