As the Democratic field widens almost every week and hostilities between the candidates commence, they are united by a single ritual: the apology.
No candidate has begged forgiveness more than Beto O’Rourke, who enjoyed a record-breaking 24-hour fundraising cycle but also had to endure questions about the way he treats his wife and bizarre writings from his teenage years. He swiftly issued a double apology — saying he was sorry for his ‘ham-handed’ quips about his spouse and ‘mortified’ by his youthful scribblings. While he was at it, he let it be known he deeply regretted his “white privilege.”
Having skipped the race, billionaire Michael Bloomberg was scathing about the eagerness for atonement in the Democratic field — even from Joe Biden, who has yet to announce his run. “Joe Biden went out and apologized for being male, over 50, white,” he said at the Bermuda Executive Forum on Friday.
“He apologized for the one piece of legislation which is actually a pretty good anti-crime bill, which if the liberals ever read it, most of the things they like is in that bill,” he said. “They should have loved that. But they didn’t even bother to read it. You’re anti-crime, you must be anti-populist.”
“Beto, whatever his name is, he’s apologized for being born. I mean, I don’t mean to be unkind. And a lot of people love him and say he’s a smart guy. And some day, if he wins, I’d certainly support him.”
At the start of the year, Sen. Bernie Sanders set the tone for the 2020 pack by apologizing to the female staffers of his previous presidential campaign after a number of damning reports regarding systemic sexual harassment and discrimination during his 2016 run.
“It appears that as part of our campaign, there were some women who were harassed and mistreated — I thank them from the bottom of my heart for speaking out,” Sanders said in public remarks. “What they experienced was absolutely unacceptable and certainly not what a progressive campaign or any campaign should be about.”
Shortly after Sanders’ act of contrition, Sen. Kamala Harris had to explain her controversial record as a district attorney in San Francisco and the state’s attorney general.
“But the bottom line is the buck stops with me, and I take full responsibility for what my office did,” Harris said in a January press conference.
Around the same time in January, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard told CNN how much she regretted her past remarks on homosexuality and gay marriage.
“In my past, I said and believed things that were wrong, and worse, they were very hurtful to the people in the LGBTQ community and to their loved ones,” the Hawaiian congresswoman said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren followed their lead in February by formally apologizing for self-identifying as Native American in a state registration card for the Texas Bar. After releasing a DNA test showing minor Native American heritage, Warren contacted Cherokee National Principal Chief Bill John Baker and apologized for her racial insensitivity.
“I should have been more mindful of the distinction with tribal citizenship and tribal sovereignty,” Warren told reporters.
Biden, who is expected to announce his candidacy any day now, was forced to walk back his appraisal of Vice President Mike Pence as a “decent guy” earlier in March. After an outcry from liberals, Biden tweeted out a corrective after former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon questioned how his compliment “falls on the ears of our community.”
“You’re right, Cynthia. I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on a world stage. But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President,” Biden tweeted.
But not all Democrats think this pattern will best position Democrats against President Trump.
“I do think it’s a sign of weakness to apologize for things in your past,” Jeff Hewitt, a Democratic strategist told the Washington Examiner. “Our base is so much more sensitive to these things. Too many times on the left we get caught up in hand-wringing.”
Some Republicans, like GOP campaign consultant Guy Short, smell blood in the water with so many Democratic candidates being defined by their past mistakes, rather than their visions for the future.
“The hyper gotcha moment is coming home to roost [for Democrats]. They’ve been pushing this on the Republicans and the president for years, through Democratic politicians and the media,” he said.
