In an interview with Maryland Senator and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Chris Van Hollen during the 9:00 a.m. ET hour of Friday’s CNN Newsroom, anchor John Berman actually pressed the liberal lawmaker on whether Pennsylvania congressional candidate Conor Lamb’s decision to run against Nancy Pelosi and not attack President Trump would be a model for other Democrats in the 2018 midterm election.
“There was a fascinating special election in Pennsylvania, where Conor Lamb, the Democrat, seems poised to win....And he ran in a very interesting way, he didn’t really run against President Trump, not at all. He ran more against Nancy Pelosi, to be frank. What are the lessons that Democrats should take from his apparent victory?,” Berman asked.
Trying to dodge the awkward question, Van Hollen declared: “Well, first of all, John, Trump ran against him. Trump went up to Pennsylvania two times and failed – ” Berman interrupted: “That’s true, but...that’s different than saying that the Democrat in this case, Conor Lamb, ran against the President. Because he didn’t and he dodged any questions about...the President.”
Van Hollen admitted that other Democrats may have to follow the same strategy in order to have a chance of winning in more conservative districts: “What Conor Lamb did is what many of our members will do, which is said where they disagree with the President, where the President’s bad for their district or their state, they will fight him. But where the President’s proposing something that’s good for their state, they’ll support him.”
Moments later, Berman followed up: “Would you advise Democrats, though, running around the country – and you know that many Democrats, liberals, progressives are obsessed with the President frankly, I don’t think there’s any other way to put it – would you say, warn them, don’t make your campaign all about Donald Trump?”
Again, Van Hollen tried to deflect: “Oh, look, every campaign is different. And that is of course true in House races, it’s also true in Senate races.”
On Wednesday, CNN announced that Berman would replace Chris Cuomo as the co-anchor of New Day, as Cuomo moves to primetime. If his interview with Van Hollen is any indication, hopefully viewers can look forward to Berman holding liberal guests more accountable than Cuomo ever did.
Here is a transcript of the March 16 exchange:
9:42 AM ET
(...)
JOHN BERMAN: Senator, if I can, I want to talk elections for a moment, because I’m not sure everyone knows this, but your sort of second job is electing Democrats to the Senate. You did it in the House as well. There was a fascinating special election in Pennsylvania, where Conor Lamb, the Democrat, seems poised to win, he’s ahead. There may be a recount, who knows? It’s likely he will win this race. And he ran in a very interesting way, he didn’t really run against President Trump, not at all. He ran more against Nancy Pelosi, to be frank. What are the lessons that Democrats should take from his apparent victory?
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN [D-MD]: Well, first of all, John, Trump ran against him. Trump went up to Pennsylvania two times and failed –
BERMAN: That’s true, that’s true, but Conor Lamb did – but Conor – that’s different than saying that the Democrat in this case, Conor Lamb, ran against the President. Because he didn’t and he dodged any questions about the Democrat – about the President.
VAN HOLLEN: What Conor Lamb did is what many of our members will do, which is said where they disagree with the President, where the President’s bad for their district or their state, they will fight him. But where the President’s proposing something that’s good for their state, they’ll support him.
In the case of Pennsylvania, for example, he supported the President’s tariff proposals. So, he also focused on core economic issues, protecting Social Security, protecting Medicare, and pointed out that Paul Ryan and the Republican congressional budget actually goes after Medicare and cuts Medicaid, even as it provides these huge tax breaks for corporations. And he did focus on those bread-and-butter issues.
And as you know, the Republican effort to make this about the tax cuts ended up being a total failure. So I would say focus on those bread-and-butter issues. That’s what happened down in
Alabama, where Doug Jones won the seat there, the Senate seat, as a Democrat, even though Trump went down there to the Alabama-Florida border and campaigned against him as well.BERMAN: Would you advise Democrats, though, running around the country – and you know that many Democrats, liberals, progressives are obsessed with the President frankly, I don’t think there’s any other way to put it – would you say, warn them, don’t make your campaign all about Donald Trump?
VAN HOLLEN: Oh, look, every campaign is different. And that is of course true in House races, it’s also true in Senate races. I would say that in many of our Senate races, our candidates are taking this approach that Lamb did in Pennsylvania, which is, again, on core economic issues, that’s what counts. And they are going to work with the President if the President supports issues important to their state, but they will fight him on these other big issues.
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