McDaniel Campaign Attacks Sen. Cochran’s Daughter With ‘#Who’sYaDaddy’ Meme

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel’s (R-MS) campaign started a #Who’sYaDaddy meme to attack Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) by using a partial quote from his daughter.

“Thad Cochran’s daughter has some ‘damaging’ words to describe Chris McDaniel,” the image introducing the meme said. The image then partially quotes Cochran’s daughter, Kate Cochran, a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, on her Facebook where she said McDaniel “relies solely on Jesus, the Constitution, and common sense.”

In the corner of the black and white image are two hashtags: “#ThankYouKate” and “#Who’sYaDaddy?”

“Thad Cochran’s daughter had the audacity to write this, in an attempt to criticize me,” the caption for the image said.

This is the full paragraph from the Facebook post by Kate Cochran that the McDaniel campaign drew from:

Lack of experience (he is not a “career politician.”) Lack of wisdom (he relies solely on Jesus, the Constitution, and common sense*–combined in the veneer of “goodness”). Lack of judgment (he vows to refuse federal monies and to try to impede legislation). Lack of specificity (what are “Mississippi values”?). Lack of perspective (how does he believe for one moment that a junior Senator from the poorest state will have any influence in Washington? How can he believe that he will not want his family to live with him in the D.C. area?). I see these “qualities” as a disingenuous pose, engineered to appeal to the very worst in our electorate.

After the McDaniel campaign posted on the new meme, Kate Cochran put an addendum on her post:

Since there’s been widespread misunderstanding of this phrase in particular, let me clarify it. By “common sense,” I meant this person’s version of common sense, which is not sensical at all; that is, reasoning that keeping one dollar and refusing three from the federal government makes Mississippi come out on top. This version of “common sense” flies in the face of not only basic arithmetic, but also the lessons learned in any high school civics class (e.g., the difference in duties, responsibilities, and authority of the state legislature versus the U.S. Congress). There are similar discrepancies in the versions of Jesus and the Constitution, but hopefully the clarification of what I meant by “common sense” will serve as sufficient illumination.

The runoff between McDaniel and Cochran is June 24. See the full image below:

(H/t: Buzzfeed)

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: