Alex Thompson Profile picture
Jul 9, 2019 6 tweets 2 min read Read on X
NEW: Behind the scenes, the warren campaign is building all tv/digital/graphic production in-house (+ all digital ad-buying.
campaign tells me it won’t pay commissions to media consultants for primary/general.
Joe Rospars is officially chief strategist
politico.com/story/2019/07/…
Combined w/ the no fundraisers, no outside pollster, and the early investment in staff instead of stockpiling resources for the usual TV ad blitz at the end, the in-house media moves are a rebuke of and an attempt to disrupt the consultant-heavy campaign model.
Some media consultants see this as purity politics gone awry and, perhaps unsurprisingly, see the campaign needlessly shunning expertise.
The ascension of Rospars to chief strategist (digital strategists for Obama’s 2 campaigns) is a signal that the campaign is producing the campaign w/ smartphones and comp as the main medium instead of TV. some experts think TV still critical given older people watch/vote more
Rospars is, somewhat ironically, technically a consultant on the campaign and is being paid through his firm Blue State Digital even as he is in many ways the architect and builder of this in-house approach that rebuffs the consultant-heavy model.
Here’s Rospar: "Campaigns offer a chance not only to tell people what kind of president you’ll be, but to show it. She’s running her campaign the way she intends to govern: willing to question existing power structures, making decisions grounded in evidence” (full quote here)

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More from @AlexThomp

May 16
Exclusive: Axios obtained the audio of Robert Hur's 2023 interviews of Biden which show repeated mental lapses as he struggles to remember words & dates amid long, uncomfortable pauses.
Biden WH didn't release it last year. Listen below.
w/ @MarcACaputo
axios.com/2025/05/16/bid…
The audio shows what the transcript lacks — Biden's dry-whisper voice and the long silences as he struggles to speak and remember details.
Those often were supplied by his attorneys, who acted as caretakers of his memory.
There is also a clock in the background as a metronome. Image
Though amiable, the interview became somewhat tense when Biden attorney Bob Bauer chastised prosecutor Krickbaum in this exchange over why Biden had kept a memo about Afghanistan.

"Your answer is that you don't know," Bauer instructed the president.
Listen here.
Read 10 tweets
Mar 8
New: the legal group co-founded by Stephen Miller has continued filing lawsuits and legal complaints—including against the Trump administration—as part of his larger campaign to make DEI programs illegal.

My look at another lever of Miller’s power

axios.com/2025/03/08/ste…
In early Feb, America First Legal petitioned the Education dept to investigate 5 school districts in VA for allegedly not complying with Title IX

Less than 2 weeks later, the Civil Rights office of the dept announced it was opening an investigation into the districts.
Late last month, the group petitioned the Labor Department to investigate whether outside federal contractors were in compliance with Trump's executive order banning federal contractors and subcontractors from "allowing or encouraging ... workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin."

They singled out contractors such as Lyft, Meta, Paramount, Twilio and others.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 30, 2024
My write up:

I also asked the WH how they knew Biden only meant “supporter’s” as they have it in this transcript.

Did they talk to Biden to ask him what he meant? The spokesperson asked to go off the record. We declined. They didn’t comment further.

axios.com/2024/10/30/bid… x.com/alexthomp/stat…Image
Operatives in both parties instantly saw it as a flashback to Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" remark.

The Trump team has already started to fundraise off it, sending out an email with the subject line: "You are not garbage! I love you! You are the best our nation has to offer."
Biden's comments are the latest example of why Kamala Harris' team has been avoiding campaigning with him.

Biden is both unpopular and undisciplined, Harris aides told Axios.

My story from Sunday
axios.com/2024/10/27/har…
Read 5 tweets
Oct 5, 2024
After Slotkin retreats from EV’s in a new ad this week, Harris told people in Michigan yesterday: "Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.”

Some more context in this piece.

In 2019, Harris backed a plan requiring all automakers to only make EV’s and hydrogen cars by 2035.

axios.com/2024/09/04/kam…
some more on this from @GavinBade
politico.com/news/2024/10/0…
Read 4 tweets
Oct 1, 2024
New: Kamala Harris’s called private prisons “morally wrong.”

She vowed to end the govt. using private detention centers for undocumented immigrants “on day one” of her presidency.

We asked if she still planned to do that. Her campaign didn’t respond.

axios.com/2024/10/01/kam…
Some of Harris’ posts on the topic going back to her 2016 Senate run.

2019: “On day 1, the administration will shut down all govt. contracts with private prisons.”

When Newsom signed a bill in 2019 trying to do that in CA, she wrote: “it’s time we did the same nationwide.”

Image
Image
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The Harris campaign didn't respond when asked whether Harris would keep her past promises to close private prisons.

Harris' campaign also didn't respond to a request for an interview on the topic.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 12, 2024
New: In an Aug. 28 letter obtained by Axios, the WH News Photographers Association said Harris' team was engaging in an "unprecedented reduction in access.”

The VP’s team didn’t respond until last night after we asked about the letter

W/ @sarafischer
axios.com/2024/09/12/har…

Image
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Jessica Koscielniak, the president of the WHNPA, wrote to Harris' top aides last month protesting that "the four independent news photographer seats have been downgraded to one."

She proposed either adding a "chaser plane" for additional media or the WHCA reorganizing who gets a seat.

In their response last night, the VP’s office said they explored adding more seats on Air Force Two and a chase plane and "learned both suggestions are not viable given available resources, including personnel and aircraft."

The full VP response below:Image
Image
Veteran WH news photographer Doug Mills, speaking in his personal capacity, told Axios that "the current situation puts the still photographers at a distinct disadvantage on every trip."

He added: "It's essential to us for people to understand the importance of having a full photographer pool. Every photographer sees each event differently. "
Read 4 tweets

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