Shermichael Singleton: ICE Raids Give Dems Opportunity to Frame Messaging That’d Be Disadvantageous in Elections

PHILLIP: “That is following all these stories, all these raids, people who are in their hearings, which is now a practice for ICE, they‘re going to their hearings, they‘ve been called, they‘re following the process that‘s been laid out, and then they walk out and they‘re arrested and detained.”
SINGLETON: “So, I think if you look at how some of the data suggests that there‘s a shift in moods, a mood among most Americans, it‘s because of the tactics, not necessarily around the framing of ‘Do you believe we should remove people who are in the country illegally?’ More broadly, those numbers are still, for the most part, still strong for the president. As a political strategist, I would probably be a little bit weary of the optics. Midterms are coming up. I would want Republicans to be strong on this particular issue. I would shift the optics. I wouldn‘t want to unnecessarily give Democrats an electoral advantage in their ability to articulate this next year, particularly to independents. That‘s where I‘m really sort of worried about. Republicans are going to be with the president. Democrats have got to figure out their issues. It‘s the independents that could waver one way or the other.”
PHILLIP: “So, the raids, you mean, like, you‘re concerned that that‘s damaging for the party?”
SINGLETON: “I think it gives Democrats an opportunity on the messaging point to frame this in a way that I think would be disadvantageous, particularly to Republicans in more purple districts, and that‘s what I would be worried about.”
PHILLIP: “What about this idea that, I mean, you know, Trump, and actually the Democrats as well, are warning, that the normalizing of arresting elected officials, Alex Padilla at a press conference in a federal building, in his own state, is part of a slide to autocracy?”