Barney Frank Speaks to Jake Tapper After Entering Hospice — Delivers Stern Warning to Progressives

Former Sen. Barney Frank (D-MA) delivered some stern warnings to fellow progressives as he enters his final days in hospice care due to congestive heart failure.

The 86-year-old spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday about his new book, The Hard Path to Unity: Why we must reform the left to rescue democracy.

“You are a Progressive icon, but now you are expressing some reservations about where the Progressive movement has gone,” Tapper said.

“Yes, I’ve been trying to decide, by the way, personally, whether it’s better to be an icon or an emoji,” Frank quipped.

Frank said Progressives were making a crucial mistake on culturally sensitive issues like transgender people in sports, by “taking the most controversial parts of the agenda and turning them into litmus tests.”

“Obviously, I’ve been working for gay rights — started in 1972 when I filed the bill, and we in the movement to established fairness for gay and lesbian and bisexual people,” Frank said, continuing:

We picked to work on those issues, which were more acceptable. We didn’t get to marriage until after these other things had been resolved. And that’s what I’m suggesting that we do today. The analog is male to female transsexuals playing sports that are for women. I understand a lot of anger about that. And I think in the interest of the transgender community as well as others, it would be better to go at that in a more granular way and not simply announce that if you don’t support it, you’re a homophobe.

Tapper asked about the controversial Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner from Maine, whom Frank surprisingly likened to President Donald Trump.

“Look, Donald Trump, we originally thought was a joke, and then he turned out to be very good at one thing — exploiting voter discontent. And so he won an election based on that,” Frank said. “And since then, it’s gone back to being a joke. The man is imploding. He has no program that he’s seeking to adopt. I think Platner actually shares with Trump this capacity for making the most out of the anger that people feel. What I’m afraid of is that he won’t be able to translate that into enough votes.”

“But I am concerned that among some in my party, there has been a ‘flavor of the month’ tendency. So that somebody who’s new and hadn’t been able to do much is somehow preferred over people who understand the importance of hard work to get controversial things adopted,” Frank said.

“What do you want people to remember about congressman Barney Frank?” Tapper asked.

“Oh, that I was smart enough, and learned enough about the reaction not to answer that question,” Frank joked.

Tapper ended the interview with, “Let me just say, on behalf of myself, who’s enjoyed covering you for decades, and admired your passion and your brain, and your quick wit, that I’ll miss you.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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