MSNBC host Jen Psaki suggested Democrats over-focused on trying to bring in Republican voters rather than figuring out why Democratic voters were leaving the party.
MSNBC host Jen Psaki acknowledged that the Democratic Party over-relied on “never-Trump” Republicans and should’ve made more of an effort to reach voters who had left the Democratic Party, after Democrats lost the White House and the Senate in Tuesday’s election.
The former White House Press Secretary appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday to offer her analysis “on all the things the party got wrong” about voters and their priorities this election.
Psaki first said that Democrats had committed a “huge misread” on how important the abortion issue was to millions of Americans in the country who ended up voting for Trump. She also urged her party to be “sober about” the reality that many voters who traditionally supported Democrats didn’t turn out to support Vice President Kamala Harris.
“There’s sexism, there’s racism, all of that is true, but I also think there is a real question, I hope people start looking at, about who people are listening to. In my view, there was an over-listening to, and an over-lifting up of people who left Trump, not people who left the Democratic Party,” Psaki said.
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“The people who left the Democratic Party are the people who are going to win in the future. The people who left Trump, the Never-Trumpers, who have important voices — that’s not the winning coalition, and I think that’s a takeaway,” Psaki continued.
She also suggested Democrats may have scared away voters with their heavy-handed rhetoric about Trump being “a threat to democracy” in their closing message.
“The last thing I’ll say, because I’ve been thinking about this a lot, is the part of that piece, the who you’re listening to, is also this argument — you just touched on this, Mika — about fascism. Fascism and the threat of democracy is a huge issue in this country. It’s one that should be talked about. Journalists should talk about it. People should dig into it. It is not a good closing message to reach the masses of the country. People don’t relate to it. It’s not understandable and I hope that is a lesson,” Psaki continued.
Many media figures and Democrats have played the blame game in their post-election analysis of why Harris lost, claiming racism and sexism, President Biden and even misinformation were to blame for why key Democratic voting blocs left the party or didn’t show up for Harris this election.
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According to a Fox News Voter Analysis, President-elect Trump gained Black, Hispanic and young voters this election while Harris lost ground from Biden’s 2020 numbers.
Overall, young voters backed Harris by just 8 points after going for Biden by 16 points four years ago.
Harris also underperformed with women and Black voters, compared to Biden. She won the female vote by 8 points, while Biden won these voters by 12 points in 2020. Overall, 88% of Black voters picked Harris, down from Biden’s 94%.
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
