GOP operatives seek to get 'extremely pro-Trump' doctors on TV to push immediate economic reopening

Mercedes and Matt Schlapp
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Republican operatives and Trump campaign advisers held an hourlong conference call May 11, and one of the things they discussed was recruiting "extremely pro-Trump" doctors to go on television and lend medical credence to a conservative campaign to reopen state and local economies immediately, The Associated Press reports. AP was given a leaked recording of the call, organized by CNP Action, an affiliate of the GOP-aligned Council for National Policy and part of the Save Our Country Coalition, a group of conservative organizations that formed in late April to thwart stay-at-home orders implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19.

One of the call's participants, GOP activist Nancy Schulze, offered: "There is a coalition of doctors who are extremely pro-Trump that have been preparing and coming together for the war ahead in the campaign on health care. ... And we have doctors that are … in the trenches, that are saying 'It's time to reopen.'" Trump campaign senior adviser Mercedes Schlapp, a former Trump White House communications aide, jumped in: "Those are the types of guys that we should want to get out on TV and radio to help push out the message." Schulze replied that the doctors have "already been vetted. But they need to be put on the screens."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.