Democrat Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz raged at CNN’s John Berman on Tuesday as he asked her for answers to voters’ negative views of her party.
Democrat researcher Anat Shenker-Osorio told The New York Times that around 250 focus groups consisting of swing voters associated the current Democrat Party with tortoises, sloths and “deer in the headlights,” prompting Berman to ask how the party earned the descriptions. Schultz, appearing visibly frustrated by the question, said she represents “human beings” and is not concerned about what her party is being compared to.
“‘Republicans are seen as apex predators, like lions, tigers and sharks-beasts that take what they want when they want it. Democrats are typically tagged as tortoises, slugs or sloths: slow, plodding, passive.’ Later, there was a responder that said the Democrats are like ‘deer in headlights.’ How is it that you think that the Democratic Party has earned these descriptions,” Berman asked.
“John, I am not focused on the animals that some New York Times reporter compares the political parties to,” Schultz said. “My constituents are human beings, and the human beings that I represent are facing devastating healthcare cuts. The most significant healthcare cuts that have ever been handed down by any administration. Almost 14 million people will lose their Medicaid coverage, many hundreds of thousands more, when you add the cuts to the Affordable Care Act … I’m focused on the humans I represent, not animal comparisons.”
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As Berman clarified that the voters made these comparisons, Schultz scoffed at his questioning and said comparing the political parties to animals is “ridiculous.”
“John, you said they were asked to compare the parties so they were prompted to compare the parties to animals. That is ridiculous. I’ve watched a lot of focus groups and I know the people that I represent want me fighting for the humans, the families that I represent,” the congresswoman continued.
These comparisons come at a time when the Democrats’ approval ratings have reached abysmal lows. An NBC News poll from March found that just 27% of voters have a positive view of the party, which is the party’s lowest rating since 1990. A CNN poll found in the same month that Democrats’ favorability rating stood at 29%, which is the lowest recorded rating since 1992.
The Democrats lost the popular vote for the first time in 20 years and the Hispanic male vote for the first time ever in the 2024 election. Trump became the first Republican nominee to win the Latino male vote by garnering 55% of support among that voter block, according to an NBC News exit poll.
Public polling repeatedly found that voters trusted Trump and Republicans to handle the economy and immigration, the two leading issues in the 2024 election, over Democrats. Since former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump, it is still unclear who the leader of the Democrat Party is in the aftermath of the election.
While the Democrats’ popularity is suffering, Trump’s approval ratings are surging beyond expectations in the month of May, CNN’s Harry Enten found on May 16. The jump in approval followed a drop in his favorability in April.
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