Kayleigh McEnany Urges Trump To Challenge Democrats With Three Affordability Proposals
Fox News host and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is urging President Donald Trump to go on offense against the incoming Democratic Congress before it is even sworn in.
Her idea is simple: offer Democrats a chance to work with him right away on several bipartisan affordability proposals, and then let voters see how they respond.
McEnany laid out the strategy Wednesday during an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime” as Republicans prepare for divided government following last week’s midterm elections.
She argued Trump should publicly challenge Democrats to support policies they have previously embraced, and she predicted they would ultimately reject cooperation with the White House.
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‘Welcome Them To The Table’
“Welcome them to the table and see if they take the opportunity,” McEnany said. “I bet they do not.”
“For the last two years, Democrats told us it was all about affordability,” McEnany said. “It didn’t matter what you asked Abdul on your show. He would turn it to affordability. Now it’s all about investigations and subpoenas.”
McEnany was referring to Michigan Democratic Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who made affordability and healthcare major themes of his successful Senate campaign. On CNN Tuesday, El-Sayed suggested Democrats could find common ground with Trump on expanding government healthcare coverage, and he even floated naming Medicare-for-All legislation after the president if that would win his support.
“If I were President Trump, what I would do tomorrow is I would say, ‘I’m told that you want to engage in bipartisan affordability legislation for the American people,’” McEnany said.
Three Ideas For Democrats
“Three ideas, Democrats: Let’s cap credit card interest rates. That’s something [Sen.] Elizabeth Warren [D-MA] wants,” McEnany said. “How about no tax on Social Security? Presumably, that’s something the left wants.” She also proposed codifying the major changes for prescription drugs, including the most favored nation pricing policy.
“Three things that [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [I-VT], Elizabeth Warren, the left tells us they want,” McEnany said. “So President Trump has to beat them at their game.” Trump has previously expressed support for all three of those ideas, from capping card rates to lowering drug prices.
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The president has also said since the midterms that he is willing to negotiate with the incoming Democratic majority, while keeping his veto in reserve.
“As bad or foolish ideas come in, we’ll veto,” Trump said. “Now, on the other hand, we may have some things that we’ll negotiate together, and we could be very productive.”
‘Republicans Failed At Their Job’
Incoming Democratic committee chairmen have already discussed investigations involving Trump administration officials, immigration enforcement, government contracts, corporations and other matters. McEnany predicted those probes would dominate the Democratic agenda and urged Trump to put out the agenda he wants before they even get a chance to.
She also delivered unusually sharp criticism of her own side. “Republicans failed at their job,” she said. “They failed at oversight. They failed at getting the agenda of President Trump through, and now the shoe’s on the other foot, and it’s going to hurt really, really bad for the next two years.”
“We need to learn to fight like the Democrats,” McEnany added, making clear she believes the White House cannot afford to wait for January to start that fight.