Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said on Wednesday that the Democratic Party’s leadership was frightened of calling out the far-left wing of its party.
Democratic socialists Zohran Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have surged to prominence within the Democratic Party. Kennedy argued on “Hannity” that “mainstream” Democrats and party leadership do not condemn radicals out of fear and called on them to find courage to do so — particularly, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
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“The mainstream wing of the party is scared to death of the loon wing. They won’t speak up. And they don’t stand for anything anymore. All they stand for is against whatever President [Donald] Trump stands for,” Kennedy told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “That’s why we find ourselves in the extraordinary position of mainstream Democrats have now come out firmly and passionately in favor of crime in Washington, D.C., Why? Because Trump is trying to do something about it.”
Hannity asked Kennedy if he believed Schumer and Jeffries would ever “stand up to that wing.”
“No, but they could. And I don’t mean any disrespect. I don’t know Mr. Jeffries that well. I know Senator Schumer very well, so I say this with respect: Chuck and Hakeem need to go to Amazon, buy some testicles and stand up to the loon wing of their party,” Kennedy said. “And until they’re willing to do that, I haven’t heard Senator Schumer say anything bad about Mamdani. I mean, the guy’s a socialist. He’s a whackjob. They’re scared to death. And the party is not going to get better until they do.”
Mamdani is campaigning for mayor of New York City and has run on policies including free buses, city-run grocery stores and rent freezes. He has also championed “seizing the means of production.”
Former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine also told Hannity on Aug. 6 that his party was plagued by leadership that was fearful of angering its far-left base.
“Chuck Schumer is terrified of being primaried by AOC … Good luck being the majority leader again if you go to war with your own base … [Jeffries] wants to be speaker if we’re able to retake the House,” Turrentine said. “He needs the base … And so we have two leaders terrified of the base.”
Moreover, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin said on “America’s Newsroom” Aug. 6 that he was perfectly fine with socialists being part of the Democratic Party coalition.
“[T]he difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party is that we’re a big tent,” Martin said. “We have lots of people in that tent from all of the different ideological wings, from conservative Democrats to centrists, to progressives, to these new leftists … you win through addition, not subtraction. You don’t win by pushing people out of your coalition, you win by bringing people into your coalition.”
When asked to identify the Democratic leader they believe “best reflects the core values” of their party, 10% of Democrats chose Ocasio-Cortez, while 8% selected Sanders, according to a CNN/SSRS poll published March 16. Ocasio-Cortez ranked first, while Sanders ranked third, with former Vice President Kamala Harris in between at 9%.
A July 16 Quinnipiac University poll found that only 19% of voters approved of Democrats in Congress, marking an all-time low for the polling outlet.
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