Democrats had to face a tough question recently at a Democratic donors meeting. Some of their operatives asked about their tactics in preparing for the coming midterm elections in November. They have decided to spend millions of dollars backing far-right Republicans who insist that Donald Trump won the 2020 elections. They hope that these “MAGA GOP” candidates will win and then be weaker candidates for the Democrats to face in the general election.
But one donor asked what will happen if one of these far-right Republicans actually wins.
Same Cornale is the executive director of the Democratic National Committee. He spoke directly to the question from one donor and refused to make any apologies for their tactics, according to two people who were in the room and described the discussion to NBC News.
Cornale declared that the goal is to win the elections and he, along with other key Democrats, believe that this was the way to make that happen.
Cornale told the top donors from around the country who were meeting at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C that it was “politics.”
Cornale works together with White House deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon. She ran Biden’s 2020 campaign and oversees his political office.
This midterm election strategy for the midterm elections goes cross current with President Joe Biden’s foundational message that our democracy is in jeopardy. He has focused his whole presidency on battling the “MAGA Republicans” and working across the aisle to preserve the “soul of the nation.”
Biden said in what has become his infamous Independence Hall speech in Philadelphia that Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans represent an “extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
But while Biden is making such extreme statements, his fellow Democrats are plowing money into helping these MAGA candidates to advance through the GOP primaries.
White House Remains Silent On Dems Strategy to Support MAGA Candidates
The White House has not made any comments about this strategy that seems to undermine the very tradition that Biden is promising to protect. So it seems that Biden has just accepted the inconsistency that boosting election-denying candidates should save a few Democratic congressional seats. And the whole team believes that this is worth the risk and no one is willing to divide the party.
NBC News did ask Biden what he thinks about the practice and whether he has even questioned the strategy, but Biden and his officials have refused to answer.
Chuck Todd talked with Vice President Kamala Harris about this issue and she said that she was not going to tell people how to run their campaigns.
There are some Democrats who believe that the party has prioritized winning over principle. They think the White House should speak out against the practice and even question whether it is wise to bet that the MAGA Republicans are easier to defeat.
Certainly, after recent elections, elections are indeed notoriously hard to predict.
Almost every Democrat thought that Trump would be the weakest of the GOP candidates in the 2016 presidential election, and they paid significantly for their error.
Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said, “Democrats and President Biden have made defending democracy a primary issue going into the midterms. They potentially fall on a double-edged sword when you make it your issue and then you promote election liars.”
Another senator who did not want to be known said that the strategy is just “not wise.” He said the consequences of getting it wrong are that you end up helping the people you believe are undermining democracy. He said, “We are better off being who we are and being for what we’re for and supporting our candidates.”
