CROOKED CRAMER’S CHRONICLES – NEW TARIFFS EN ROUTE TO CRAMER FUNDRAISER – CRAMER PASSES TRADE WAR DEADLINE WITHOUT ACTION – DEM-NPL VOLUNTEERS GATHER FOR DAY OF ACTION

Welcome to 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.

BREAKING: PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES NEW TARIFFS READY IN CRAMER-ENDORSED TRADE WAR. On his way to Fargo for the high-dollar, closed-door fundraiser, the president announced another $267 billion in China tariffs are ‘ready to go.’ That’s bad news for North Dakota – but we’re not counting on Kevin Cramer to take any actions to stop it. That’s because Cramer’s only campaign promise has been to support the president 100 percent of the time – even when it’s bad for North Dakota.

CRAMER TRADE WAR DEADLINE PASSES WITHOUT ACTION. To the surprise of no one in North Dakota, Cramer missed his self-imposed September 1st deadline of when he’d become “concerned” enough to stand against the trade war and break his pledge of supporting the president 100 percent of the time. Instead of offering any real, lasting solutions to mitigate the effects of the trade war, Cramer has doubled down on his reckless support. Since he created his self-imposed deadline, he’s:

• Compared someone wanting him to stand up against tariffs to “shoot[ing himself] in the head”
• Attacked Senator Heitkamp as “an enemy of our own country” for working to mitigate some of the harm done to our farmers
• Said of the trade war: it’s all “playing out the way that I hoped”
• Held a meeting with an administration official charged with implementing the tariffs who blithely told concerned North Dakotans to hang tough
• Agreed with this analogy of the trade war: “You know, you got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet, nobody said it’d be easy”
• Maintained that we needed to stay in the trade war: “Some people are saying we need to get out of this trade war. There’s only one thing to do in a trade war and that is win it”

See how much time has passed since Cramer’s deadline here.

DEM-NPL VOLUNTEERS GATHER FOR DAY OF ACTION. In stark contrast to the Cramer’s high-dollar, closed-door fundraiser with the president, the North Dakota Dem-NPL is providing free hot dogs and snacks for folks volunteering at its Day of Action. With over 300 volunteer shifts scheduled, we’re planning to serve a lot of hot dogs. 🌭 🌭

SELF-SERVING CRAMER. Cramer’s holding another closed-door fundraiser… is he  too scared to campaign in public? He’s got reason to be: between his health care agenda that threatens coverage for many folks in North Dakota, including individuals with a pre-existing condition and his reckless embrace of the administration’s trade war that’s hurting North Dakota’s farmers, manufacturers, and producers, Cramer has a lot to answer for. Just don’t count on getting any answers from him.

CRAMER TRYING TO REWRITE RECORD ON PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS. But, as HuffPost points out, “voters aren’t likely to believe they suddenly care about pre-existing conditions, just because they say they do.” And they won’t forget the 65 times Cramer voted to repeal or undermine the current health care law that could have harmed those with pre-existing conditions by increasing the cost of their insurance, imposed an age tax on North Dakotans ages 50-64, and increased health care costs.

FARM BILL POLITICS. A quick reminder that Kevin Cramer has a history of playing politics and supporting partisan poison pills in the Farm Bill. It led the Williston Herald to call on Cramer to “take a lesson from Hoeven and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp” and the Grand Forks Herald Editorial Board to label Cramer as an “ideologu[e] who value[s] purity above results.”

TWEET INVITE OF THE WEEK. We fixed Kevin Cramer’s invite to show what his fundraiser with the president actually gets him:

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