Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats can only blame themselves, not Russia, for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s loss to President Donald Trump in November.
“When you lose to somebody who has 40 percent popularity, you don’t blame other things – Comey, Russia – you blame yourself,” Schumer told The Washington Post Saturday.
Schumer, previewing the Democratic Party’s campaign message heading into 2018, admitted that people are not sure what the party stands for.
“So what did we do wrong? People didn’t know what we stood for, just that we were against Trump. And still believe that,” Schumer explained. The Democratic Party’s plan for 2018 is titled, “A Better Deal” and is meant to contrast the president’s economic message.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who faced a challenge from Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan for her leadership position earlier this year, agreed with Schumer. Pelosi told WaPo, in a separate interview, that the new slogan was not part of a course correction, but rather a “presentation correction.”
Rust-belt Democrats have sparred with their coastal-counterparts over the future of the Democratic Party. Ryan and others have argued that Democrats must return to an economic message that appeals to working class voters and marginalized groups.
Schumer said that the new agenda is not about partisan politics.
“A strong, sharp-edged, populist, bold economic message appeals to the Obama coalition and the people who voted for Trump — former Democrats who voted for Trump,” he told WaPo.
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