Chuck Schumer Admits Democrats Need To Do More To Show Americans What They Stand For

The comments come after a bruising loss in a closely watched congressional special election.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) conceded Democrats need to do a better job of showing Americans the party’s values after they lost a closely watched congressional special election in Georgia on Tuesday.

Schumer said the biggest lesson from the loss in Georgia is Democrats need a “bold, sharp-edged” economic plan. He said he plans to unveil one this summer.

Following Georgia’s 6th District special election on Tuesday, there was chatter among some Democrats that Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) should be removed from her post as the Democratic leader in the House. Pelosi herself brushed off such talk.

Asked about calls for Pelosi’s removal, Schumer said instead that Democrats need to be bolder.

“You lose an election, you don’t blame other people, you blame yourself,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

They always blame the leader. I think if we come up with this strong, bold economic package, it will change things around. That’s what we were missing,” he continued. “People don’t like Trump; he’s at 40 percent. But they say, ‘What the heck do the Democrats stand for?’ [Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)] has a point here ― we better stand for something and it can’t be baby steps.”

In a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) noted Democrats had lost the White House, many governorships, the House and Senate over the past nine years. He said Americans are fed up with both political parties.

“There is a massive amount of demoralization on the part of the American people with the Democratic Party, with the Republican Party,” said Sanders, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination last year. “There is an enormous amount of pain in this country and people are saying, ‘Does anybody in Washington know what’s going on in my life?’

“I think what the Democrats have gotta say is that we will be on the side of the working class in this country.”

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