DEMS/ELECTION/FOREIGN POLICY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Democrats need to get serious about foreign policy in 2020 or risk losing to Donald Trump. That’s the blunt warning from Chris Murphy, a second-term Democratic senator with increasing sway on the Foreign Relations Committee who just maneuvered a bipartisan condemnation of Trump’s foreign policy through Congress. And Murphy, who’s making his case to several White House hopefuls, is increasingly worried his party is too focused on domestic policy and needs to train its fire on Trump’s haphazard national security record…The president was, indeed, laughed at when he spoke before the General Assembly at the United Nations. And he has frequently spooked allies and his own generals — be it with his surprise Syria pullout, his threats to blow up NATO, his repeated attacks on the European Union or his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate agreement. Trump’s erratic policy shifts appear to be taking a toll with the public. While Republicans still maintain an edge over Democrats when it comes to national security and foreign policy, recent polls show that the gap is narrowing more than at any other point so far in the Trump era.”
–Burgess Everett and Andrew Desiderio, “Democrats could blow election to Trump, Chris Murphy warns,” Politico, April 8, 2019 4:43 pm