Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe thinks Democrats in Congress and those vying for the 2020 presidential race need to re-focus on issues that matter to Americans or the party will face consequences at the polls.
McAuliffe spoke with WTOP about the last Democratic debate for the 2020 race, expressing disappointment with the issues that candidates debated.
“I’m disappointed in the questioning that we’ve seen so far. I didn’t hear K-12 mentioned once; I didn’t hear infrastructure mentioned once; I didn’t hear workforce development mentioned once. I didn’t hear cyber security, biggest threat to democracy,” McAuliffe told WTOP’s Mark Lewis and Debra Feinstein.
Democratic candidates should be discussing health care, education and infrastructure, rather than focusing on the details of immigration, McAuliffe said.
“We’ve got to take care of immigrants who come to this country, I get it,” McAuliffe said. “But we’ve got to talk about what folks are facing every single day at home here in America.”
The Democratic Party’s stance on health care is how the party was able to flip the House blue in 2018, McAuliffe said. And the further off message Democrats are, the better it works out for President Donald Trump, he said.
“Trump wants us over here doing this. He doesn’t want us talking about health care, which is why we won in 2018, so let’s get smart, Democrats. Win, win. And when you have a majority, you can actually get things done,” McAuliffe said.
The former governor and CNN commentator said he believes former Vice President Joe Biden is the strongest candidate for now. “Today, Joe Biden is the front runner, no question. I think he’s very strong. Strong support in the African American community.”
Then, Sen. Kamala Harris: “She had a good debate,” McAuliffe said.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg follow Harris, in McAuliffe’s opinion.
“Forget the give and take with [Harris] what happened 40 years ago on busing,” McAuliffe said referencing a showdown between Harris and Biden over his work with segregationists that commentators praised as Harris’ strongest moment in the debate.
“What people are looking at [is] can you stand on a stage with Donald Trump, take a punch, and then hit him back twice as hard? That’s what they want to see,” McAuliffe said.
McAuliffe also warned candidates and Democrats in Congress against focusing all of their energy on pushing for the impeachment of Trump.
“If [voters] see the Democrats spending all their time on impeachment and not focused on these other things that they really care about, Democrats will pay a price at the polls,” McAuliffe said.
