Lifelong Democrat Chris Matthews Urges Dems To Do More To Separate Themselves From Far-Left DSA ‘Crap’
Lifelong Democrat Chris Matthews warned Democrats they’re going to need to do far more to separate themselves from the “crap” that progressives and the Democratic Socialists of America are pushing.
On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Matthews shared his thoughts on this week’s primary elections and urged Democrats to draw a very clear line between themselves and far-left candidates rising in the party.
The rant followed Democratic socialist Francesca Hong narrowly losing to moderate David Crowley in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary, while other progressive candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan have found success in thwarting the establishment’s expectations.
“The DSA has done a favor to non-DSA Democrats, to regular Democrats who are regular members of the party. They’ve listed what they believe in. Their chair made that clear,” Matthews said.
DSA members, he added, go much further than “regular” Democrats when it comes to border security, reforming the Pentagon, and more:
It’s very clear we’re going to get rid of ICE, not just ICE, we’re going to get rid of the border.
We’re not going to have a border anymore. We’re not going to effectively control people coming in and out of the country, and so I think — we’re not we’re going to get rid of prisons, you know, we’re going to get rid of the Pentagon, we’re going to negotiate.
Well, what happens when your hostages are your former diplomats, like what happened with President [Jimmy] Carter? People take your diplomats [as] hostages.
What do you do then? You need an Army. You don’t like to, like to have an Army, but you do need to have one. All these positions can be denied by any regular Democrat.
All you have to do is go out there and say, thank you, DSA, for telling us what you believe in. I don’t believe in that stuff.
Matthews, who worked as an aide and speechwriter for Democrats like Carter before stepping into the media, also took issue with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) arguing the Democratic Party is a “big tent party.”
“I like AOC generally, but she came out and said, we’re just a big tent party. Well, the problem with big tent defense is every Democrat has to defend all this crap coming from the left,” he said.
Matthews urged Democrats to avoid publicly backing “crazy stuff” to try and win over progressives, a strategy he predicted won’t work in the general midterm elections as Republicans will be heavily focusing on DSA and far-left candidates:
You’ve got to say, no, no, I’m not a member of the DSA and here’s why. And make it very clear.
So it’s going to require politicians to be good politicians and say, here’s where I stand, right? This is why I’m a Democrat. I’m for labor unions. I’m for opportunity for everybody. I’m for civil rights. I’m for all the things I believe in as a Democrat, but I’m not with this crowd.
And I think that’s going to be a line that has to be drawn by Democrats because I’m telling you the last six weeks of this election is going to be an attack on El-Sayed and the DSA in New York and the [Zohran] Mamdani, and [Republicans] are going to come out and blame every Democrat for everything the DSA is doing.
I don’t believe the DSA plan. I don’t believe in their checklist of what they believe in. I’ll say so. But running for office is going to require that, I think, before the election.
Watch above via MS NOW.
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