De Blasio: ‘Unclear' message hurt Democrats in 2024
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said Thursday that Democrats lacked a clear message during the 2024 campaign cycle, leading in part to their defeat in the race for the White House.
In an interview on Fox News Channel's 'America's Newsroom,' the progressive pushed back on the suggestion that the Democratic Party's embrace of liberal policy positions lost them the election.
'I think what happened is the Democratic Party lost touch with some of the things that … the progressive movement was saying that people cared about,' de Blasio said when asked 'how badly' he thinks Democrats 'misread the American electorate' in 2024.
De Blasio said progressives were 'strong' on issues that mattered to voters like health care, affordable college and raising the minimum wage.
'Unfortunately, in 2024, we didn't have that message bluntly,' he continued. 'I think our message was unclear. And that's part of why we lost the election.'
Another key factor that de Blasio said lost Democrats the election was the party's inability to come to terms with former President Biden's chances leading the ticket.
'I think we could have won that election if Joe Biden, obviously, had moved aside earlier, if Kamala Harris had said she was going to take us in a different direction, but not just continue what Joe Biden was doing, I think we could have won that election,' he said.
'So, my message to the Democratic Party is, let's get back to our roots, talk about working people, not sound like the elite, not focus on our donors, focus on working people and we can actually move forward again,' he continued.
De Blasio said he thinks he and other Democrats 'wanted to believe' that Biden was up to the job mentally but 'we were wrong, and we should have been more critical.'
'I don't think I was lied to. I think we — it was magical thinking. We wanted to believe what we wanted to believe,' de Blasio said, about whether he thinks he was lied to. 'I'm sure not everyone will agree — I think he did some very good things as president.'
'But it was clear that he was not the same person towards the end of his term,' he added.
De Blasio said he thinks 'it hurt a lot' that Democrats continued to say Biden would have no issue serving as president for the next four years, saying, 'I think a lot of people felt betrayed.'
'All of us need to accept some responsibility,' de Blasio said. 'Because he did, in my view, he governed well on many levels, but he was not ready to continue for four more years.'
'We should have just come to grips with that. I think if we had had an open process, if it was not, 'here's an anointed candidate,' we actually had a process, we would have had a stronger candidacy,' he added.
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