Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Democratic Party’s brand was not helpful for politicians to run under “anywhere.”
Host Jake Tapper said, “You announced last month that you’re going to run for governor of Colorado, a decision that you say is driven by your frustration with Congress and, frankly, with Democratic leadership. I just wonder, given your party’s record low popularity right now, does the Democratic brand help you or hurt you even in a purple, blue state like Colorado?”
Bennet said, “I don’t think nationally, the Democratic brand helps very much anyway, I mean anywhere. If it did, we wouldn’t have lost to Donald Trump twice. You know, I know a lot of supporters of mine and friends of mine are furious at Donald Trump. I am. Are furious at people they think aren’t standing up enough to Donald Trump. I am. But I’m also furious that the Democratic Party that has lost twice to Trump. Donald Trump could not get appointed to any job in the state of Colorado. He couldn’t get hired on, you know, 17th Street, which is our business street here in Denver, Colorado. But he’s been sent to Washington twice to blow the place up because, among other things, people are sick of what they see as the self-interested partisanship there.”
He added, “I think they’re sick of a Democratic Party who hasn’t been able to show how we’re going to address an economy where the middle class continues to shrink and where, over the last 20 years, we’ve actually lost ground in terms of, you know, the achievement of our kids in school. We need to address those things. So I think it’s very important for us to stand up against the insanity that Trump represents and the chaos that he represents and show that there’s something better.”
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