‘Morning Joe’ Guest Admits Democrats Have ‘Substance’ Problem

MSNBC contributor John Heilemann claimed Democrats who focused on “language” were missing a bigger problem the party had in the wake of its defeat in the 2024 election.

President Donald Trump carried 13% of the black vote in the 2024 presidential election, according to CNN’s exit poll, compared to 12% in 2020 and 8% in 2016, while also making substantial gains among Hispanic and young voters that year compared to his previous campaigns. Heileman told “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski on Tuesday that while parties “losing traction” with key voter groups often are in that position due to issues.

“I would say that the focus on language is something we’ve seen in a lot of political parties when they get into trouble. This is something, you know, you can think back to the periods where the Republican Party has been out of favor,” Heilemann told Brzezinski. “People think, ‘Oh, well, how do we how do we talk differently? How do we — we have to reach this group, we have to reach that group. And the way to reach this group or that group is to tailor our messaging to try to reach those groups.’ And it turns out, at least in our lifetimes, that the way that you start to reach groups that you have lost favor with or that used to support the party, but now don’t and you’re losing traction with them, is partly a language thing, but really it’s more of a substance thing.”

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“It’s a thing of, like, what does the party believe in? And so when I hear Rahm, enormous respect for Rahm Emanuel, he’s accomplished a lot, I said this literally on the show last week, Elissa Slotkin is another person who’s been saying the same sort of thing, ‘weak and woke,’ that phrase is a phrase that various people who want to moderate the party have been throwing around,” Heilemann continued. “What I think is important here is that it’s not the question of what the party’s image is, but is what does the party stand for. If the party takes positions on issues that are weak and woke, it will seem weak and woke. If it takes positions that are strong and not woke, that is the way to go forward. It’s not about language, it’s about where are you going to deviate from what has become Democratic ideological conformity.”