CNN hosts Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell called out Democratic National Committee senior adviser Cedric Richmond Wednesday after he defended efforts by Democrats to boost “MAGA” candidates in Republican primary elections.
“[The ads] didn’t say flattering things about those candidates. What they did is just highlight how extreme, how divisive they were, and for some reason that was attractive to the MAGA crowd, and it put them – gave them an advantage in their primary” Richmond, a former Democratic congressman from Louisiana, said. “So, all they did was really criticize them on how bad they were and unfortunately for Republicans, that’s what they were looking for and they got exactly…”
“Come on, Cedric,” Blackwell said. “You know the point of spending that money was to elevate them so they would be easier to beat in the general. It’s not like, oh, we just listed some attributes and if they made it to the general, then that’s what happened. That was the point to get them to the general.”
One prominent MAGA candidate promoted by Democratic spending was John Gibbs, who defeated Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol building, in an August primary after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote him.
Gibbs was one of many prominent candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump who lost during the Nov. 8 midterm elections where Republican expectations of a “red wave” did not materialize into results.
“It was two-fold, one was to list those attributes we knew was a negative in a general, but we knew would be attractive to Trump’s MAGA base,” Richmond said.
There were definitely some moments where it was a be careful what you wish for scenario, and maybe that’s happening a little bit again,” Camerota said. “There are some Democrats right now today who seem to be welcoming a Donald Trump run.”
Camerota quoted former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who both expressed a desire for Trump to run.
“I think we would all like Donald Trump to run again,” McAuliffe said to Gray DC Saturday, while Sanders told the New York Times a Trump candidacy is “probably a good thing.”
Richmond dismissed Camerota’s concerns that boosting Trump could backfire.
“We beat him by seven million votes, so we know we can beat him. The part that worries me is you can never count Donald Trump out, but the other part is what does this do to the country? Two years of lies. Two years of hate. Two years of division. Two years of him picking on people,” Richmond said. “Remember, he bullied a reporter – a reporter with a disability. He encouraged violence at his rallies. The part that worries me the most is what does giving him a microphone again do to the well-being of this country?
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