Outgoing Democratic National Committee (DNC) Jamie Harrison told The Associated Press’s Meg Kinnard that the part should have kept former President Joe Biden as its presidential nominee.
Harrison didn’t say Biden should’ve stayed the nominee because he could’ve beaten Trump.
Biden shouldn’t remained the nominee because that’s how the voters voted in the primary.
The discussion about the nominee switch started when Kinnard asked Harrison if a short campaign hurt former Vice President Kamala Harris.
A longer campaign might have made it easier for Harris, Harrison conceded, but he reminded Kinnard that the party built “a race for Joe Biden.”
The Democrats gave up on Biden but stuck with President Donald Trump:
“Joe Biden gave the State of the Union, people said it was one of the best State of the Unions that we’ve ever seen. Then we move forward to the debate, and people were like, that was a horrible debate performance. And then my thought was: ‘Joe Biden secured the nomination. The primary was done, and so, I’m a loyal guy. We’re riding with Biden.’”“And if you look at the other side, in terms of Republicans, Donald Trump had just been convicted, how many times for all these felonies? And you didn’t hear a peep from the Republicans, in terms of like, ‘We need to jettison Donald Trump, and we need to open up a new primary, and we need to do this and that.’ And so sometimes, I think, Democrats can learn something in terms of, let’s put a line of defense around our folks and defend them as well.”
Then Kinnard asked Harrison if the party should have kept Biden as its nominee:
HARRISON: “That’s my normal default, is that you stick by your people, right, particularly people who have worked hard on behalf of the party.”“I went into this thinking, OK, you’ve got probably the most successful of my lifetime legislative president who has poured tons of money into making sure that not just Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get elected, but Democrats get elected — not just in the battleground states, but all states who support a lot of resources and his own time fundraising in order to strengthen the state parties.”“And then when he hits a roadblock, when he hits a bump in the road, do we stick with him, or do we jettison him? That’s the mentality that I had going into this. And my nature is, ‘I’m on the team with you, you’re my quarterback. You got sacked a few times. But you know what? I’m going to block the hell out of the next person that’s coming at you.’ And that is not always the mentality of everybody in my party. And so sometimes, people look on the sidelines, ready to call in the backup.”
Harrison also dropped some hard truths for Democrats regarding minority voters: “You cannot take anybody for granted. You cannot just assume just because you’re a Black man, you’re gonna vote for a Democrat.”
Harrison stressed that you have to persuade the person. You have to listen to the person about issues that are important to them.
Imagine that…not treating a voter based on skin color or sex:
HARRISON: “People think, well, it’s just about turnout in the Black community, right? It’s just about turnout with this group. No, it’s not. It’s more than just turnout. It’s about persuasion. You have to persuade people why you are the best person for them. You have to talk to them about the issues that are important to them. You have to show them that you really are fighting for them, and that means having those individual conversations, but having targeted conversations specifically geared towards the people that you’re talking to.”
IMAGINE THAT.
You mean not all black people care about the same issues? You mean people are individuals and have their own thoughts?
Who would have guessed!?
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