Harris campaign memo: Media is memory-holing the fact that Trump was president before

Trump has a four-year record as president on abortion, IVF, marijuana legalization, "no tax on tips" and the Child Tax Credit. The press should point to glaring flip-flops.

The Harris campaign sent out two memos to the press in the last few days.

One has been written up by quite a few media outlets. In that one, the campaign chief, Jen O’Malley Dillon, while talking about the great strides Kamala Harris has made as a candidate, cautions against overconfidence: “Make no mistake, we head into the final stretch of this race as the clear underdogs.”

The other memo, however, has had fewer takers, covered by ABC News but not many others in corporate media. And even ABC omits the thrust of the memo, focusing instead on the memo’s criticism of Trump for his “brazen flip-flop” on recreational marijuana legalization in recent days, suddenly supporting legislation that would do so as Floridians are expected to overwhelmingly support marijuana legalization in a ballot measure in November.

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The lack of coverage of the memo is likely because the totality of it, written by senior campaign spokesperson Ian Sams, is a polite but clear admonishment of the media itself for focusing on supposed position shifts by Kamala Harris but ignoring the fact that Trump has not only changed positions in recent days: He has a full record on prominent issues as president, and its been shoved aside.

“Over the past week or so, there has been significant media scrutiny of Vice President Kamala Harris’s positions on a range of issues in this election,” the memo states, referring to “the focus of a large portion of her first national TV interview as the Democratic nominee on CNN Thursday night.”

“At the same time,” it continues, “former President Donald Trump has made several bewildering ‘policy proposals’ that deserve real scrutiny…”

Then in boldface, within the memo:

“Let’s be blunt: Trump is just making stuff up. And he hopes we will all memory hole his actual record and only pay attention to his shallow words.”

No matter that they didn’t write it up, it’s important for reporters to see this memo—and they do obviously read the memos—because it’s a reminder to them that, consciously or not, they are treating Donald Trump as if he is a brand new candidate.

It’s not just that he and Harris are being held to a different standard on supposed shifts: Trump has an actual four-year record of detailed actions he took on all of the issues that have been discussed in recent days, and few reporters have talked about them and instead focused only on his recent statements about them.

The Harris-Walz press team is smart, and not shy about this kind of stuff. It’s important for the the campaign to remind reporters—and all of us frankly—because there is a treasure trove of details that should be used in all reporting.

Per the memo:

“On issue after issue, Trump is saying one thing after having done another. For example:

• As a candidate in 2024, he suggests he is for decriminalizing marijuana—but as President, his own Justice Department cracked down on marijuana offenses.

• As a candidate in 2024, he has thrown out a vague promise to pay for everyone’s IVF treatment—despite the fact his own platform could effectively ban IVF, and his own running mate voted against IVF protections on the Senate floor just a few months ago.

• As a candidate in 2024, he keeps proclaiming “no tax on"tips"—after pushing regulations as President that would have stolen more than $700 million a year from tipped workers to let bosses keep their workers’ tips.

• As a candidate in 2024, he and his running mate JD Vance say they want to expand the Child Tax Credit—but for years, Republicans have blocked doing that.”

That’s just the overview upfront. The memo then digs deeper on every one of those issues, adding more details and links documenting the facts. For example, the second issue it outlines is IVF:

“2) Trump claims he will provide free IVF treatment—but his platform could effectively ban it.

• Donald Trump’s own platform—linked on his campaign website—could effectively ban IVF by establishing so-called “fetal personhood.”

  • Here is how The 19th News described it: “If established by legislation, fetal personhood would have the practical effect of prohibiting abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Its impact could become national if courts affirm state-level laws that extend the application of the 14th Amendment to fetuses. … Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted. Fetal personhood bestows the same rights currently reserved for people to embryos from the moment of fertilization. The GOP platform said the party supports ‘mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments).’ It does not explain how they plan to support IVF while also supporting fetal personhood policies that would render it illegal.”

• As President, Trump appointed an anti-IVF judge to a lifetime federal judicial appointment. He even added her to a list of potential Supreme Court picks.

• Trump’s campaign has refused to support national protections for IVF access.

• Trump’s White House and campaign hosted the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice whose ruling effectively ripped away access to IVF in the state earlier this year.

• Trump has deep ties to the anti-IVF movement.

• Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, voted against IVF protections in the Senate just a few months ago.”

This gives enormous context to Trump’s very real actions as president, his actions as a candidate, and his deep ties on the right, as well as those of his running mate. That is critical in covering the issues at hand right now, and it’s important to spell it out for the press if they’re not finding it themselves.

On a positive note, one recent story in which the corporate media hasn’t memory-holed Trump’s past actions—and let’s give them credit where it’s due—is on his use last week of Arlington National Cemetery as a backdrop for his political campaign, bringing cameras on hallowed ground for his own purposes.

In the back and forth all week, with Trump on the defensive while the media has reported on details of his actions as well as responses from Democrats—including Vice President Harris—the media has consistently pointed to his past disparagement of service members through his actions and his words, including his having called those who died in war “suckers” and “losers.” (I could complain about other aspects of the coverage of this story, but on this aspect—bringing his history to the discussion—they’ve done well.)

But that was a recent exception. All too often, much of the media seems as if it’s trying to help Trump appear like he’s making sense when it’s just crazy meanderings and complete flip-flops, treating him as a candidate who just popped on the scene. They instead should be looking at Trump’s record as president, as all of his positions on current issues—his actions—are there to see plain as day.