CNN’s Tapper to Sen. Booker: How Can Democrats Talk About ‘New Chapter’ When They Are in Charge?

TAPPER: “Democrats made a clear effort at the DNC to frame Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate of change. Take a listen.”

[Clip starts]
Harris: “Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity, a chance to chart a new way forward.”
(...)
WALZ: “So I don’t know about you. I’m ready to turn the page on these guys. We’re not going back.”
(...)
Obama: “America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story.”
[Clip ends]

TAPPER: “A new chapter? I mean, she’s the incumbent vice president. Democrats have controlled the White House for 12 of the last 16 years. How can Democrats talk about a new chapter, turning the page? You guys are the ones writing the book.”
BOOKER: “Well, you know that that’s not true, Jake, because you know politics like I do. Right now, we see the MAGA Republicans in Congress killing all kind of pragmatic policies that we need to get done. On the most contentious issue, we had a bipartisan deal argued by — excuse me — settled on by Senator Lankford, a right-wing Republican, and Chris Murphy, a blue-state Democrat. And what killed that deal? What killed the pragmatic progress? It wasn’t the sensible Republicans, but really people that were kowtowing to Donald Trump. His influence is egregious and incredible, from his appointment of three people to the Supreme Court that are now rolling back the most fundamental of our rights and freedoms, like bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. So, to say that the MAGA Republicans are not still undermining commonsense, pragmatic, sensible politics is just wrong. And what I know this election can do is finally kill that strain of the Republican Party in a way that I think helps the pragmatic Republicans come back. I’m one big believer we get a lot more bipartisan work done than people realize. I just can’t stand this tribalism, this zero-sum game, us versus them. If there’s any theme in this campaign that I loved — and it was evident by how many Republicans spoke at this convention, people who are not Democrats, who will — once we get back to sort of the McCain party or even the Bush party or the Reagan party, will probably go back to voting Republican. This is really a binary choice. Are we going to have the politics of Donald Trump, which is smear and fear, denigration and demeaning, or are we going to have a page be turned in America, where we get back to coming together, meeting in the middle, showing that we can compromise and actually get big things done as a nation?”