David Plouffe, a former senior advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, said Tuesday on a podcast that he’s “sick and tired” of playing a “different game” than the GOP’s Super PACs, despite claiming the PACs engage in illegal activities.
Following Harris’ loss in both the Electoral College and popular vote to President-elect Donald Trump, Democratic pundits and lawmakers have been vocal about their questions regarding the sweeping election results for Republicans. On “Pod Save America,” the former senior Harris advisor voiced his frustrations with how Democrats handle the rules of Super PACs, before outlining how the party could better focus on specific voters.
“Having been through this some time ago, but then witnessing again this time, we have to stop playing a different game as it relates to Super PACS than the Republicans. Love our Democratic lawyers, [but] I’m tired of it. OK? They coordinate more than we do, I think amongst themselves, I think with the presidential campaign, I’m just sick and tired of it. OK, so we cannot be at a disadvantage number one,” Plouffe said.
“Number two, to Jen’s point, I think you don’t want duplication. But I think having multiple players on the field as long as they’re well coordinated is great. Like back in 20′ I spent a bunch of time with Tara McGowan who now runs [the] Courier with ACRONYM [organization] and all we did. I think was 80 or 90 million dollars, which was great,” Plouffe added. “We only did digital low information voters, right? So whatever Future Forward [PAC] was doing we were very focused on that particularly low information voters of color.”
Plouffe went on to say that Democrats are at a disadvantage when working with a “different set of rules,” accusing GOP Super PACs of operating differently during former President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012.
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“So I think to have an ecosystem where whether it’s on issues like reproductive health or climate or manufacturing or health care or a specific lane that you’re focused on in terms of messaging, I think that’s really, really important,” Plouffe said. “I think that they tend to have more entities that are — to Stephanie’s point clearly it is not legal what they’re doing. But we’re at a disadvantage when our folks are playing by a different set of rules than they are.”
“I mean, I remember, going back to 2012, you guys might remember this like Mitt Romney is running around the country asking for specific dollar amounts at Super PAC events. We were told that Barack Obama couldn’t even attend them,” Plouffe said. “So I just think at the end of the day this is important. Again, this is not at the top of the reasons that we had a different outcome here, but to win close races you kind of want to be maximizing every piece of the arsenal. So I think this is something we really have to reflect on and make some adjustments going forward.”
Despite spending more than $1 billion throughout her campaign, Harris’ group has continued to ask donors for money, leading to backlash as the campaign is reportedly $20 million in debt, according to Politico. The Democratic National Committee has also faced criticism after laying off hundreds of employees, with some now questioning the group’s spending habits.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/”Pod Save America”)
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