‘Wasn’t Just One Bad Night’: Democrat Tells CNN Party Must ‘Course Correct’ On Biden Now Or Trump Will Win
CNN’s Boris Sanchez spoke to Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) on Thursday about the Democratic Party’s response to President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate against Donald Trump and what comes next for the party.
“You said soon after the debate that Democrats have to be laser-focused on winning and not hand-wringing or sentimentality. Do you believe that President Biden still gives your party the best shot to win in November?” Sanchez asked.
“I don’t know, Boris. But here’s what I do know. The guy you showed a few minutes ago. Donald Trump is a fundamental threat to democracy, to our fundamental rights, and to the free world, Joe Biden is not,” Huffman replied, adding:
But I do know that we’re also not on a winning trajectory. And I think we’ve got to be honest about that. So we need a reset. We need a course correction. We’ve got to acknowledge that this wasn’t just one bad night. This is a pretty pervasive and widespread perception that’s been dragging President Biden down in the polls for many months. So we’ve got to figure this out. I think we have a couple of weeks to do it. But we’ve got to do it.
Sanchez followed up, “So, Congressman, what does that course correction that you’re describing look like?”
Huffman replied, “Well, it’s a great question and that’s what many of us are struggling with. But I think we have to remember that this is a winnable campaign. Two weeks from today, the Republican Party is going to nominate a convicted felon and an adjudicated sex predator, a guy that wants to be a dictator, a guy who’s deeply unpopular. I think certainly right after they finish that spectacle, we need to have our ticket finalized so we can go out and win this election.”
Sanchez then asked, “When it comes to your description, quote many of us struggling, it seems like behind closed doors, as we’ve heard in CNN’s reporting, there is anxiety. And there is, as some have described it, panic. But publicly, as we just heard in Sondland’s reporting, it seems that Democrats want to present the idea that this was just one bad incident. Do you think that as a party, there’s not yet been an acknowledgment, as you made a moment ago, that this wasn’t an episode, that this is, a string of lapses that has been reported on for months now.”
Huffman replied, “I think there are different perspectives on that, Boris, to be perfectly honest. Some people, want to write this off. As, you know, one bad night, they want to insult the critics, call them bedwetters, etc.. I don’t think that’s helpful. I think we’ve got to take a very sober look at the reality of the race as it currently stands. And it wasn’t just one bad night, it was a bad night that may have locked in a really unfortunate narrative about President Biden’s age and fitness, and that narrative could be very hard to undo. So we’ve just got to be honest about that. We’re four months before the election, and the guy who is threatening our democracy, our fundamental rights in the free world right now is winning. We gotta fix that.”
Watch above via CNN.
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