Donna Brazile to Dems: Don’t Get Caught in This ‘Socialist Wave’

Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Democratic political consultant Donna Brazile urged her party to “define itself” and not “get caught in this socialist wave.”

Partial transcript as follows:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Donna, we’ve seen these insurgents from the Democratic socialists of America making a lot of headway in House primaries. El-Sayed in Michigan is not formally a socialist, but he’s from the progressive wing. How much is that going to hurt Democrats in the fall?

BRAZILE: Well, first of all, George, when you look at the DSA, which is not the Democratic Party, so I had to go online to figure it out. They ran 29 candidates. They’ve lost 11. They’ve won seven. And there’s still an opportunity for them if they play their cards right, maybe to pick up three or four more seats.

The problem right now, George, is that the Democratic Party must define itself and make sure that we don’t get caught in this socialist wave, which is, you know, popping up here, there and everywhere. But I think Michigan is going to tell us a lot about this current electorate. We know they’re angry, they want change. And both candidates are trying not to allow the labels to define them.

Miss Stevens said I’m not a moderate, I’m a populist. Mr. Abdul said I’m not a progressive, I’m a populist. They want to capture this anger and they want to see if they can ride it to the polls.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve been a Democratic insurgent, you’ve been part of the Democratic —

BRAZILE: Establishment.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Establishment. So when you look at Michigan right now, how concerned are you that a lot of establishment Democrats believe that El-Sayed cannot win in November?

BRAZILE: Well, that young man at the end said, well, Trump won. It’s going to be difficult. He will have to unite the party. He’s going to have to bring the establishment wing back on board to his side. And he’s going to have to, I think, do a better job of messaging for the fall in order to win swing voters. Michigan is a purple state. It’s going to be tough.

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