Budowsky: Trump’s seven deadly sins could doom GOP

President Trump’s political strategy in 2020 repeats his strategy in the 2018 midterms that doomed the Republican Party to suffer a historic defeat. Here are seven deadly sins that Trump is committing today. Some are deadly in real life to tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans. Others could be politically fatal to Republican House and Senate candidates in November.

Sin No. 1: The Bob Woodward book “Rage” provides the smoking gun about Trump’s dishonesty and failures combatting the novel coronavirus.

It was monumentally scary that Trump would tell Woodward early on that he fully understood the extreme and deadly danger the virus creates, and then spent months failing to lead and acting as though the virus would disappear like a miracle. In a recent interview with Woodward, he praised himself for his performance that will soon leave 200,000 dead and claimed, obviously falsely, that he had done everything possible to defeat the virus.

Trump was transparently dishonest with the American people. He repeatedly refused to take actions that would have saved tens of thousands of lives. He disrespected leading medical authorities including Anthony Fauci. He has a political operative at the Department of Health and Human Services who tries to censor or corrupt reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose experts he shamefully accuses of “sedition” and being willing to accept more Americans dying before the election. He repeatedly holds rallies that are aggressive superspreaders of COVID -19.

There is extreme danger of a major new COVID-19 wave when the flu season begins soon. If this happens, which is likely, Trump and Republicans in the House and Senate will totally own it and pay the price politically.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the candidate who will protect the health and safety of Americans.

Sin No. 2: Trump’s attack on early voting, and his attempts to delegitimize our democratic election itself, constitute an attack against American democracy that offends millions of voters, inspires Democrats to a massive early voting campaign, and deters Republicans from voting by mail.

Trump’s attack is offensive to patriots who believe in democracy, seniors who are told by Trump they must risk their lives in order to vote, and moms and dads with family reasons to vote by mail.

Sin No. 3: Trump’s verbal violence, refusal to condemn certain hate groups and the appearance that his behavior foments or provokes violence hurts him politically and helps Biden — who voters see as more capable of handling both peaceful protests and violence in communities.

Biden is now the leading candidate of safety, protection and law and order, as well as racial justice and national unity.

Sin No. 4: Trump has repeatedly insulted military leaders, insulted American POWs by saying he prefers troops who were not captured, and is credibly quoted as saying that Americans who lose their lives in war are “losers” and “suckers.” A recent poll in Military Times found that Biden leads the vote of active-duty troops. A growing number of retired military leaders, veterans and members of military families are speaking out against Trump.

Biden is the candidate of military families and national security.

Sin No. 5: Trump and Republicans oppose significant aid to state governments. This is a direct attack against police, firefighters and first responders who will be laid off if Trump and Republicans prevail.

Sin No. 6: Trump’s contempt for the integrity and knowledge of science is so extreme that while fires rage throughout the West, Trump denies that climate change exists, and while COVID-19 kills hundreds of thousands of Americans, Trump denies the truths that leading medical authorities plead with him to respect and act on.

Sin No. 7: the obsessive push by Trump and Republicans in Congress to destroy ObamaCare while health care is a paramount issue during an outbreak of the most deadly disease in a century threatens the lives and safety of Americans.

Biden and Democrats are the party of patriotism, optimism, unity, health, security and safety for Americans who are gravely endangered by Trump’s deadly sins.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.