Donna Brazile, who served as campaign manager for Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign and is the current Vice Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, had some surprisingly kind words to say about the Tea Party during a TV appearance on Sunday, June 15.
Brazile appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos during its “Powerhouse Roundtable” segment to discuss Congressman Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) loss in the Republican Primary. The Democratic strategist remarked that “The Tea Party is the energy inside the Republican Party. You ignore them, you ignore the base.” [See video below.]
Brazile began her comments by noting “Eric Cantor did not pay attention to his voters. He lost touch with them and he spent the morning of election day, I mean, this is a very important time to be on the local news, not in the national news, the local news, at Starbucks. He should have been Krispy Kreme down in his district.”
The DNC official concluded by surprisingly praising the Tea Party: “He [Eric Cantor] was out of touch. And the Tea Party is still highly caffeinated. Because the Tea Party is the energy inside the Republican Party. You ignore them, you ignore the base. And that's a problem. And he ignored the base.”
Kudos to Brazile for saying positive things towards her conservative rivals rather than reflexively slamming the Tea Party unlike other liberals have done following Eric Cantor’s primary defeat.
See relevant transcript below.
ABC
This Week with George Stephanopoulos
June 15, 2014
DONNA BRAZILE: I have to tell you as somebody who's observing this race, I'm trying to look at all of these primary races. Low turnout. You got to really go out there in these low turnout elections, although there were a lot more than participated in most primaries. Still, Eric Cantor did not pay attention to his voters. He lost touch with them and he spent the morning of election day, I mean, this is a very important time to be on the local news, not in the national news, the local news, at Starbucks. He should have been Krispy Kreme down in his district. He was out of touch. And the Tea Party is still highly caffeinated. Because the Tea Party is the energy inside the Republican Party. You ignore them, you ignore the base. And that's a problem. And he ignored the base.
