Hillary on What’s Wrong with the Democratic Party: It Probably Boils Down to Candidates and Their Message

TRANSCRIPT:
SCARBOROUGH: “Let me let me ask you about the Democratic Party, because... and what they need to do and what’s going wrong over the past decade. You’re talking about how important the midterms are. If you just look — I saw this a couple of days ago, the counties, the districts along the Texas-Mexico border -“
Clinton: “Uh-huh.”
SCARBOROUGH: “I think you won those counties by 60 plus points.”
Clinton: “Uh-huh.”
SCARBOROUGH: “I think Donald won those counties outright.”
Clinton: “Uh-huh.”
SCARBOROUGH: “That story has been retold time and time again. Why have Democrats lost? Not only the working class white men, but working class Black men, Latinos, go down the list. Young men, so many others. What’s gone wrong? What do the Democrats need to do moving forward to set things straight?”
Clinton: “Look, I think that there are a lot of reasons, but, you know, it probably boils down to candidates on the democratic side either stop talking in ways that were going to be understood and appreciated and agreed with by certain constituencies. Stop being effective communicators in modern communications. You know, the Republican Party, I have to say, has done a much better job dominating social media, dominating the podcast ecosystem, getting messages out and aiming, particularly at young men. And this was one of the insights that Steve Bannon had, that, you know, young men who were into gaming, young men who were on the internet a lot, you know, they could be recruited, they could be persuaded to be political supporters of the Republican Party if the Republican Party actually engaged and talked to them in the right way. And I think Democrats missed a lot of opportunities on that. You know, there seems to be a concerted effort to try to catch up and repair that. But if you don’t communicate with people online, you know, the people who are watching us are people already interested in politics, they’re curious about our takes on things, they want to see who your guests are, but that’s, you know, kind of a small portion of the electorate right now. Most people get their news from social media. So if they’re getting their news from, you know, 15-second videos, 30-second takes, 3-hour podcasts, where people are just kind of unplugged and saying whatever, then, Democrats had better compete in those arenas. And so, there’s a lot of catch up work to be done. But there is a role for reality to play, and in the last election, people did not feel that they were better off. They did not feel that, fairly or unfairly, the policies of the Biden Administration were helping them, helping their families and Latino voters felt that, as you say, both Latino men, black men, and others said, okay, well, how bad can it get? I mean, you know, we’re not we’re not going to, you know, want to continue this. So we have to try something different. And now, though, they see the Trump Administration and policies in action. And I do think we have a very good chance, assuming, you know, we are in the fight to win back the House in 2026 and and maybe the Senate, because the reality of what Trump is doing. You know, for example, when they eliminated the enhanced premium tax credit for the Affordable Care Act, that hits very soon in the next 30 to 60 days, health care costs for millions of Americans are going up 75%. That’s not Medicaid, which hits after the 2026 election, although the results are going to be felt beforehand because hospitals are cutting back services. But the Affordable Care Act health premium costs are going up to 75%. Now, when somebody logs on to renew their health insurance and they see that, wait a minute, how did that happen? Well, it happened because the big bill they passed eliminated it. So reality is actually going to bite, and I think if we do a better job than they do of explaining the connection between the Republican decisions and what’s happening in people’s lives, it’s not any more affordable, the tariffs are not any longer going to be absorbed by companies, the costs are going to start to bite. It’s terrible what’s happening because None of us are, you know, going to be very happy with the economic costs of that, and the low job creation, and the difficulties with inflation. Okay. Who’s in charge now?”