Former White House Chief of Staff and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told the hosts of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” on Monday that the Democratic Party is “not open” to a takeover by self-identifying socialist candidates.
“There is a pragmatic and a progressive wing of the party,” Emanuel said. “We both believe that the system is rigged against families that live paycheck-to-paycheck and try to make ends meet and who work hard, trying to raise their kids to know right from wrong and do the hard work. That’s where the party’s soul is.”
“Some believe in Medicare For All,” he continued. “I believe in early retirees buying into Medicare. That’s a healthy debate we should have and then present a plan to the country on how to return health care to being a peace of mind, not the nightmare that it is today.”
The career politician and former Illinois congressman was asked how he feels about the growing divide within the Democratic Party between the party’s traditional Democrats and some of its rising-star Democratic Socialist candidates, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. Emanuel, in response, said the policies of the latter do not perform well in mainstream elections.
“Four weeks ago, the Democratic Socialists had a party convention in Chicago,” he noted. “They’re a separate party. They’re not a caucus or a wing of the [Democratic Party]. They’re a separate party. We’re not open to being taken over. You think people want defunding the police, open borders, opening up the prison doors? I’ll see you in November. If you think people are going to buy this Purina dog chow, great.”
Emanuel went on to push back against the media’s focus on the divide between the Democratic Party’s two current, dominant factions. The politician argued that focusing on said fracture only distracts from the most important point of this fall’s forthcoming midterm election cycle.
“The only way you win is turning red to blue, not blue to midnight blue or cobalt blue,” Emanuel said. “You want to get a minimum wage? Red to blue. You want to expand health care and get back premium support for working and middle-class families who live paycheck-to-paycheck? Red to blue. That’s simple.”
“Anything that distracts from this election being a referendum on Donald Trump’s corruption and the Republicans’ rubber stamping of that corruption is political malpractice,” he concluded.
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