Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said Monday there was a downside to the Democratic Party being “so inclusive” under the Obama presidency.
Former President Barack Obama addressed the political environment in the United States on Saturday, saying the Republican Party engages in “the mean, angry, exclusive, us/them, divisive politics,” whereas Democrats are “coming together.” York, however, said the Obama presidency’s inclusiveness “ended up devastating the Democratic Party.”
“During his eight years in office, the party lost more than a dozen governorships net, more than 800 state legislative offices net, more than a dozen senators, and I think 64 members of the House,” York said on Fox News’s America Reports. “The Democratic Party limped away from the Obama presidency because he was so inclusive.”
Obama made his remarks the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) visited the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he compared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to “the secret police, something familiar in Germany,” a reference to the Gestapo in the 1930s and 40s. York argued that politicians must develop “a pretty high tolerance” for controversial comments, but said Newsom’s comment was “outrageous.”
York added that people in the U.S. have become “desensitized” to Democratic lawmakers and voters comparing President Donald Trump to former German dictator Adolf Hitler, making this the “standard rhetoric” in the U.S.
“But to go to Germany and to say this and to compare the enforcement of federal immigration law in the United States to Germany in the 1930s and 1940s was really beyond the pale,” York said.
OBAMA IS IN NO POSITION TO LECTURE US ABOUT DECENCY
Newsom’s visit to Germany comes amid speculation that he may seek the White House in 2028. He is set to visit New Hampshire next month, a key early voting state. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “he’d make a great president.”
On the Republican side, Washington Examiner senior writer Joe Concha said Tuesday that Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be “quite the potent one-two punch of a ticket” for Republicans.
