Capehart: Democrats Need To Do Whatever It Takes To Get Elected, Then Sort Out Their Differences
PBS NEWSHOUR: David Brooks of The Atlantic and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW join Geoff Bennett to discuss the week in politics, including the president’s influence over the midterm elections and how Democrats are campaigning.
GEOFF BENNETT, PBS NEWSHOUR: Meantime, at a Rose Garden event this past week, President Trump urged Republicans running in these tight races to run on his record, saying that’s all they need to do to win big is to embrace him. What’s striking, David, is that the president seems to be arguing that the midterms should be a referendum on his presidency, when so many other past presidents have basically argued the opposite. DAVID BROOKS, THE ATLANTIC: Yes, I — Charlie Cook was prognosticating the election, which is what he’s really good at. And he said the Republicans have three likely outcomes. One is bad, the other is really bad, and the other is horrible. And so the winds are not on the Republican side. And so normally in these circumstances, the president lays low because he knows he’s a problem for people in swing districts. But Donald Trump is incapable of laying low. And maybe they think he can bring out some base in some places, but I just — I think it — making himself the center of this is yet another blunder. BENNETT: And contrast this, Jonathan, to what the former Vice President Kamala Harris said. She was asked about the red state Democrats, who have in most cases sort of shied away from her record, stayed away from her, didn’t want what didn’t want her campaigning with them, and she said: “They need to do whatever they need to do to win. Bottom line, we need to win.” JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW HOST: Yes, those are the exact same words Nancy Pelosi said to members of her caucus and folks who are hoping to be a part of the Democratic Caucus in multiple elections when she was minority leader and then when she became speaker, because the mantra for Pelosi and the mantra I’m hearing from former Vice President Kamala Harris is, win, baby, win. Do whatever you need to do to get elected, and then we can sort out whatever stuff needs to be sorted out. But getting the majority is the number one priority of the Democrats.
