CROOKED CRAMER’S CHRONICLES – CRAMER INFUSING POLITICS IN FARM BILL – 5 FAST FACTS ABOUT CRAMER’S TRADE WAR – COUNTDOWN CLOCK – 100 DAYS OUT MEMO

Welcome to Crooked Cramer’s Chronicles where, every Friday, we’ll break down the latest and greatest weekly hits about Cramer’s crooked, self-serving, extreme, and gaffe-prone behavior that puts himself and his partisan politics ahead of North Dakotans.

WILL CRAMER PUT POLITICS ABOVE A STRONG FARM BILL ON CONFERENCE COMMITTEE? If history is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes. His pattern of playing political games with farmers’ livelihoods is well-documented – Congressman Cramer will always put politics ahead of what’s best for North Dakota. A brief history:

• June 2013: After fighting for deep, partisan cuts, Cramer blamed everyone but himself for the bill’s initial failure, taking aim at both Democrats and Republicans before later complaining at a closed-door GOP meeting that failure to pass the legislation would end his congressional career.
• June 2013: The Williston Herald slammed Cramer for “knocks on his leadership,” which included choosing politics over fighting for a strong Farm Bill, and urged him to “take a lesson from Hoeven and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.”
• September 2013: The Grand Forks Herald Editorial Board admonished Cramer as an ‘ideologue’ who “rejects compromises and insists on policies that are ideologically pure” for prioritizing partisan efforts to carve food stamps out of the Farm Bill.
• May 2018: This year, Cramer enthusiastically voted for the initial House Farm Bill which enjoyed zero bipartisan support because of its huge cuts to SNAP, threatening food support for millions of Americans. And he practically shrugged at his support for including a poison pill provision in the first iteration of the Farm Bill, which resulted in its failure on the House floor – calling the effort “not inappropriate.”

5 FAST FACTS ABOUT CRAMER’S TRADE WAR. Kevin Cramer helped create and continues to fully embrace this reckless trade war and North Dakotans know he’s to blame for the devastating economic impact it’s having on North Dakotans’ bottom lines. While Cramer may try and spin during his trade town hall today, here are five fast facts you need to know:

1. The trade war is jeopardizing the livelihood of North Dakota’s farmers, ranchers, and businesses: 111,100 jobs are supported by trade and over $60 million in exports are threatened.
2. Cramer flipped and flopped and flipped again on the trade war, playing games with producers’ livelihoods, all to up his political capital with Washington.
3. Cramer is now a rubber stamp for this disastrous trade war. In fact, he’s one of its biggest cheerleaders – to the detriment of North Dakotans.
4. Cramer has repeatedly underestimated the economy-killing consequences of the trade war, proving just how out of touch he is with North Dakotans.
5. Cramer created a self-imposed deadline for when he’ll finally stand up for North Dakota against this trade war: September.

DON’T MISS: Editorials across the state are detailing how the Cramer-endorsed trade war, and $12 billion bailout, is harming North Dakotans.
Walsh County Record Editorial: Farmer Welfare Falls Short.
AgWeek Editorial: Trump trade aid just a bandage.
AgWeek: Economist: Prolonged trade war threatens North Dakota economic growth.

DEM-NPL LAUNCHES COUNTDOWN CLOCK UNTIL CRAMER’S NEXT BROKEN PROMISE. Instead of standing up and taking responsibility to try and blunt the effects of the trade war, Cramer kicked his responsibility down the road and, incredulously, created a self-imposed deadline of September for when he’ll finally stand up for North Dakota’s interests. Well, Cramer has less than one month until that deadline and the Dem-NPL is here to remind him every minute of every second of every day that he’s not standing up for North Dakotans. See how much time he has left here.

POLITIFACT: “EFFECTS” OF TRADE WAR “NOT PRETTY.” Earlier this week, Politifact took a look at the damaging impact of Cramer’s trade war:

• For workers in America’s heartland, the good news of savings from President Donald Trump’s tax cuts is getting overshadowed by concern over his disruptive trade policies.
• “My equipment manufacturers tell me whatever advantage they’ve gotten from the tax code change has been eaten up in the very early months of the steel and aluminum tariffs,” Heitkamp said on CNBC on July 20, 2018.
• Economists tell us the effects of the tariffs, while imprecise so far, are not pretty.

KEVIN CRAMER WORKS FOR WASHINGTON – NOT NORTH DAKOTA.Read our 100 Days Out Memo on the many times Cramer has voted however his D.C. bosses order, all to increase his political capital so he can enrich himself. That’s why he’s wrong for North Dakota.

CRAMER STILL BACKED BY OUT-OF-STATE DARK MONEY. The Koch Network’s snub of Cramer made news this week, but North Dakotans know that Cramer is still backed by out-of-state special interests. That includes the billionaire Uihleins from Illinois, who gave Cramer the maximum primary contribution and also contributed to accused child molester and former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
**DON’T FORGET why Cramer got into the race in the first place: An out-of-state billionaire pledged to bankroll his campaign.**

CRAMER WON’T STAND UP FOR PRE-EXISTING CONDITION COVERAGE.Washington’s latest scheme to expand skimpy, short-term health plans could mean that North Dakotans who have pre-existing conditions like asthma, cancer, or depression wouldn’t be guaranteed coverage and could be priced out of affording care. One insurer warned that these plans have “the potential to harm consumers, both by making comprehensive coverage more expensive and by leaving some consumers unaware of the risks of these policies.” Yet Cramer supports this dangerous agenda.

ICYMI: GRAND FORKS MAYOR ON WHY HE’S SUPPORTING HEIDI.
“Put simply, this Senate campaign should be about the candidates’ records. It should be about the results they’ve actually brought home to North Dakotans during their time in office. Heidi has distinguished herself as an effective legislator – she’s informed, she’s engaged and she gets the job done for North Dakota. She’s never lost touch with her roots. And that’s pretty rare in Washington these days.”

CRAMER’S PLAYING POLTIICS YET AGAIN – THIS TIME WITH VETS.Cramer’s voting record on veterans’ issues isn’t anything to write home about; in fact, he’d rather cover it up – so he’s desperately trying to conjure up some support from North Dakota’s veterans by spending campaign funds on a social media blitz targeting them. There’s just one problem: the ad he’s promoting features a California stock photo rather than a real North Dakota veteran. Veterans’ groups have always known about Cramer’s record – and now North Dakota vets are starting to notice his cheap political tactics, too.