Leading liberal voices in media publicly worried about the Democratic Party’s current field of candidates and questioned if any of them could defeat President Trump.
“I came away feeling worried for the Democratic party,” CNN pundit Van Jones said minutes after Tuesday’s Democratic debate on CNN. “Tonight I felt like this was a night they were all going to put the fireworks out there … you were going to get the best of the best … and to me, the whole thing just felt like a big bowl of cold oatmeal.”
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“The remaining Democratic candidates for president have not been aggressive enough in challenging Trump head-on,” long-time Democratic political figure Al Sharpton said.
Presidential races, Sharpton said, are like prizefights.
“You have to take the title, and I didn’t see anybody on the stage last night, or in the ring, that really said, ‘I’m taking charge, I can be president, I can take on Donald Trump,'” Sharpton said. “Because he is going to come in with that kind of mindset, and I don’t see that mindset yet in any of the candidates.”
A report this week alleging Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told fellow leading candidate Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2017 that a woman could not be elected president failed to generate the fiery debate-stage moment some expected.
“This is what Trump and the media want,” Sanders said, dismissing the question.
Polling shows defeating Trump is at the top of minds for likely Democratic primary voters in key states.
“We keep getting stuck in the ‘Yeah, but, can a woman beat Trump?'” Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List, told the Washington Post. “We’ve been, for 12 months, looking at electability in a really narrow way, and it’s caused a huge amount of problems in this primary.”
Primary front-runner Joe Biden has cast himself as the most moderate and formidable opponent the party could put up against Trump.
Biden has received the most public criticism from Trump of any of the leading candidates in the primary race.
Looks to me like it’s going to be SleepyCreepy Joe over Crazy Bernie. Everyone else is fading fast!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2019
“He knows I’ll beat him like a drum,” Biden has said of Trump.
The president’s defenders have also sensed weakness in the 2020 Democratic field.
“What I saw last night, I feel very good about the president’s reelection in November, because one, it was hard to stay awake,” said former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “Two, they’re fighting over whether or not who has won what election over the last 30 years; nobody cares.”
I agree with Van on this one. You either have people who have done nothing or those who will magically fix it now after 30-50 years of doing nothing.
Americans can’t possibly trust their and their kids futures to the dems! pic.twitter.com/5uBRpT9k8d
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 15, 2020
A new CBS poll shows Biden, Sanders, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg in a virtual tie among voters in Iowa, the state with the first primary election on Feb. 4.
Trump, meanwhile, is riding a bolstered wave of support from his Republican base, which has given him an approval rating of more than 90%.
My Approval Rating in the Republican Party is 95%, a Record. Thank you! #2020Election
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2019
