Former Obama administration staffers slammed the campaign arm of House Democrats on Monday for publishing opposition research last week against a Democratic congressional candidate in Texas.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last Thursday published opposition research on its website against Laura Moser, calling her a "Washington insider" and criticizing her for speaking negatively about Texas. The public release of opposition research against Moser prompted liberal podcast "Pod Save America" co-hosts Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor to castigate the DCCC for attacking a candidate from their own party.
Favreau, a former Obama speechwriter, said that much of the opposition research against Moser, who is running in Texas’ Seventh Congressional District, was "misleading" and that he has "no idea" what the DCCC was thinking when they decided to publicly target Moser. He went on to say that it was "pretty bullshit" for them to take Moser out of context for a previous comment she made about Paris, Texas.
"The way this—these morons—the way this works is when you pay an advertising firm, half of that money then goes back out to the TV stations or the digital ad buyers, who then place your ads," said Vietor, a former national security spokesman and assistant press secretary under Obama. "This pisses me off on two levels... I'm fine with the DCCC picking sides and supporting people, but don't go after the Democratic family like that with negative ads that are this brazenly dishonest. Two, are you guys really so bad at your jobs that thinking a terrible, out-of-context, ridiculous attack like this is going to be effective? It is clearly rallying people around her candidacy. It is so personally and professionally stupid and offensive."
"I really think they walk it back and try to fix this before everybody completely loses faith in the organization," Vietor added.
Favreau said that someone called into their live stream last week about whether they should donate to the DCCC, prompting him to encourage the Democratic donor to donate money to the DCCC because their voter files are important for candidates. However, he appeared to suggest that the Texas race may change his opinion about the DCCC's effectiveness.
"Hey DCCC, get your shit together," Favreau concluded. "I don’t want to get annoying emails from the DCCC being like ‘oh here’s what really happened.’ No, tell everyone what really happened. Be public about it. Don’t fucking talk to us."
Moser raised more than $60,000 between last Thursday and Saturday due to opposition from inside the Democratic party, according to the Texas Tribune.