Key Point: “‘Trump has floated dozens of names, and while he trots them around like sad show ponies on the campaign trail, it doesn’t really matter who’s in his good graces one day and who’s shooting their dog the next,’ DNC Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin told Axios in a statement. ‘Trump’s VP contenders have all already shown they pass his extreme, MAGA litmus test.’”

Axios: Scoop: Inside the DNC’s plans to paint Trump VP contenders as extreme

By: Sophia Cai

• The Democratic National Committee is launching a “Trump’s MAGA Veepstakes” project to paint all of former President Trump’s VP contenders as extreme on denying the results of the 2020 election and on abortion among other policy issues.

• […] As dozens of Trump’s potential vice presidential picks do their best to distinguish themselves in the lead up to Trump’s selection, Democrats plan to lump them together as “all the same” in terms of backing an “ultra-MAGA” policy agenda, DNC officials tell Axios.

• […] The DNC, in coordination with the Biden campaign, plans to mobilize across departments to spotlight the VP candidates’ positions on policy and use their own words against them to make the case that the whole field of candidates is extreme, a committee official told Axios.

• It also plans to run paid ads and dedicate staff across the communications, digital and research departments to the effort. […]

• “Trump has floated dozens of names, and while he trots them around like sad show ponies on the campaign trail, it doesn’t really matter who’s in his good graces one day and who’s shooting their dog the next,” DNC Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin told Axios in a statement. “Trump’s VP contenders have all already shown they pass his extreme, MAGA litmus test.” […]

• The DNC plans to zoom in on a set of four issues in particular where they expect Trump’s eventual running mate to have vulnerabilities:
  • 2020 election — Refusing to certify the results of the 2020 or 2024 election if they were VP
  • Abortion —  Applauding Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade and supporting a national abortion ban
  • Health care — Supporting plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act
  • Working families — Tax cuts for billionaires and cuts to programs like Social Security and Medicare

The Hill: DNC launching ‘Trump’s MAGA Veepstakes’ project

By: Jared Gans

• The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is launching a project to attack the list of top Republicans being considered as possible candidates for former President Trump’s running mate. 

• The committee said in a release Wednesday that “Trump’s MAGA Veepstakes” is designed to hold the potential choices “accountable as they sign onto Trump’s dangerous, out-of-touch MAGA agenda as part of their desperate race to the bottom.” 

• “Like any narcissist, Donald Trump will choose a VP in his image: an extreme, anti-choice MAGA election denier who wants to rip away Americans’ freedoms and sell out working families to help their special interest donors,” Rosemary Boeglin, the communications director for the DNC, said in the release. 

• The release states that the “litmus test” for being considered to be the running mate requires supporting Trump’s false claims of the 2020 presidential election being stolen, supporting bans on abortion, working to repeal the Affordable Care Act and wanting to “sell out working families” and “gut” Social Security and Medicare. 

Fox News: Democrats plan assault on Trump’s VP pool, mock ‘MAGA Veepstakes’: report

By: Anders Hagstrom

• Democrats are planning a media assault on former President Trump’s large group of potential running mate picks, hoping to paint the group as extremist, “ultra-MAGA” Republicans.

• Trump has offered few clues about who he intends to select, leaving the group of roughly a half-dozen major candidates pushing to set themselves apart. Democrats are looking to paint the candidates with the same brush, however, arguing they would all effectively be the same, Axios reported Wednesday.

• The Democrats, with their reported “Trump’s MAGA Veepstakes” plan, look to focus on key issues like election denial, abortion, healthcare and tax cuts. No major Trump VP candidates have split with him regarding his view of the outcome of the 2020 election.

The Independent: Democrats launch ‘MAGA Veepstakes’ to target extreme views of Trump’s running mate hopefuls

By: Alex Woodward

• The Democratic National Committee has launched a campaign to target the “desperate race to the bottom” to become Donald Trump’s running mate.

• The DNC’s “Trump’s MAGA Veepstakes” will highlight the Republican vice presidential hopefuls’ anti-abortion views, election lies, and support for gutting healthcare and Social Security. […]

• The campaign, first reported by Axios, will shape Democratic messaging during President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, which has broadened its scope to warn against the Republican party’s growing far-right antidemocratic agenda and Mr Trump’s dominance across US politics.

• The “MAGA Veepstakes” campaign will reach across social media, in rapid response messaging and in candidates’ remarks, advertisements and debates, a DNC official told The Independent.

• Democrats will hammer Mr Trump’s shortlist of running mates, which is “chock full of anti-abortion extremists who are in lockstep with Trump’s cruel anti-choice agenda to rip away women’s freedoms,” according to the DNC.

• The campaign also will target the party’s “extreme election denialism” and Mr Trump’s bogus narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

• Democrats will also focus on potential running mates who have vowed to gut the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, as well as Medicare and Social Security, and the GOP’s “yearslong records of threatening seniors’ pocketbooks.”

• The campaign will also zoom in on candidates’ support for Trump-backed tax cuts.