As the Democrat Party continued to reflect on their loss to President Trump in the 2024 election, the liberal media and Democrats may need to do a full factory reset. On Monday, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports covered Democrats coming together to find the root issue of why their party failed this time around, including Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin stating, “We lost the trust of so many parts of our coalition for so many years now.”
The Democratic National Committee was in the process of conducting an audit on what went wrong for the 2024 election that was reported on by The New York Times, but the committee dodged huge questions that Jansing summarized as omitting key factors:
Six people briefed on the review’s progress tell The New York Times is expected to mostly steer clear of digging into whether former President Joe Biden should have run for reelection, whether he should have dropped out of the race earlier, and whether Kamala Harris was the right replacement.
Those questions alone should be the answers to why the Democrats lost, but the DNC Chairman took a different approach and questioned if the party was even “authentic” anymore.
Jansing asked Senior Advisor to Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign, Maya Rupert, if she had a solution to solve this “authenticity” issue. While her cat walked around on her desk waving its tail in her face, Rupert argued that they should for more than just talking about normalcy:
I definitely think that is a big part of what we're dealing with. I think for a very long time, Democratic candidates have really been concerned with saying, “Listen, you know, things have gotten too chaotic. We can bring things back to normal.” Right? This sense of we can bring things back. And what that started to do is make people think that Democrats aren't trying to fight forward, aren't standing for things, but rather can revert us to the status quo. When people are this unhappy with the status quo, that message falls really flat with people. And so I think what we're seeing is a desire.
That had to sting MSNBC after listening to that response. Was the Democrat Party waking up to the idea that the majority of Americans were done with a woke agenda, or was it hard to take Rupert and Democrats seriously when her cat was on camera?
After Jansing asked if the “Democratic candidates have been wimping out,” Rupert went on to explain that it was just the standard messaging problem for Democrats:
But I think that there is also a national information ecosystem where the Democratic message has gotten watered down and it has sort of turned into people saying things that don't for a lot of people don’t mean something, right? We need to reconnect those values to what they actually mean to people.
Maybe Democrats should realize that to “reconnect” with the American people was not having Megan Thee Stallion perform for a candidate’s rally in inappropriate clothing, singing about being “too expensive” and “sexy”- because that definitely promoted what Americans can relate to.
There was a theme of rhetoric, reconnection, and authenticity that was a larger problem than former President Biden dropping out and former Vice President Harris stepping in to start her campaign 107 days before the election.
The American people voted and made it clear they were done with woke ideologies, standing against common sense, and done with the liberal media promoting biased propaganda.
Click here for the transcript:
MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports
6/21/25
12:30 p.m. EasternCHRIS JANSING: So the Democratic National Committee has a review in the works to try to figure out what exactly went wrong in the 2024 election, but it's raising some questions about what it's reportedly not looking into. Six people briefed on the review’s progress tell The New York Times it is expected to mostly steer clear of digging into whether former President Joe Biden should have run for reelection, whether he should have dropped out of the race earlier, and whether Kamala Harris was the right replacement.
To quote The Times, “party officials described the draft document as focusing on the 2024 election as a whole, but not on the presidential campaign, which is something like eating at a steak house and then reviewing the salad.”
I want to bring in Senior Adviser to Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign and former Campaign Manager for Julian Castro's presidential bid, Maya Rupert. Basil Smikle is here with me and MSNBC Political Analyst, Democratic Strategist and former Executive Director of the New York State Democratic Party.
(...)
12:33:55 p.m.
JANSING: Every Democrat, Maya, that I've talked to has an opinion about what went wrong and what needs to be done differently going forward. My colleague Alex Witt actually spoke to the DNC Chair, Ken Martin, on Sunday. Here's what he said Democrats need to do and why.
[Cuts to video]
KEN MARTIN (DNC chairman): We actually have to stiffen our spine and stand up and fight for what we believe in, right? You know, the question I ask people all the time is if you're not willing to fight like hell for what you believe in, do you really believe in it at all? And that's what's left with in the minds of not only huge portions of our base, but the American people, which is they don't believe we're authentic. They don't believe that our party is willing to stand up and use the power we have to actually make a difference in their lives, to improve their lives, to make a difference in their communities. And that's the biggest challenge we have. We've lost the trust of so many parts of our coalition for so many years now.
[Cuts back to live]
JANSING: Is that the biggest problem, Maya? Do you think Democrats have an authenticity problem, and if so, what exactly does that mean and how do you solve it?
MAYA RUPERT: I definitely think that is a big part of what we're dealing with. I think for a very long time, Democratic candidates have really been concerned with saying, “Listen, you know, things have gotten too chaotic. We can bring things back to normal.” Right? This sense of we can bring things back. And what that started to do is make people think that Democrats aren't trying to fight forward, aren't standing for things, but rather can revert us to the status quo. When people are this unhappy with the status quo, that message falls really flat with people. And so I think what we're seeing is a desire.
And I think Ken's exactly right. We have to see candidates who are willing to unequivocally say what they are for. Not sound like this has been message tested over and over again. Not be afraid of being called woke or being, you know, standing up for what they believe in and doing it consistently. And I think that's what we're going to see in ‘26 and ‘28, successful candidates are going to be speaking plainly and clearly, but having a driving set of values. And that's what voters are responding to.
JANSING: I'm honestly, Maya, do you think that Democratic candidates have been wimping out? Do you think that they have been too overly message tested? I'm just going to say again and again, it's anecdotal, but when I was out in the 2024 campaign, when I was out in many campaigns, I see those candidates going door to door, maybe not a presidential candidate, but I see them going door to door. I hear them answering people's questions. [Long pause] Is this an excuse? Is this an excuse for maybe something larger?
RUPERT: I listen, I hear you, I think when we're talking about individual candidates, I have seen people campaigning and I think what works on the ground, what people are doing, is what needs to happen. But I think that there is also a national information ecosystem where the Democratic message has gotten watered down and it has sort of turned into people saying things that don't for a lot of people don't mean something, right? We need to reconnect those values to what they actually mean to people.
So yes, I definitely think that this isn't a problem of an individual campaign or candidate. It's a much, much larger issue, and it's not going to be solved by a single campaign or single candidate. But I do think we have to be realistic about the way people hear the Democratic message right now. There is something that needs to be fixed. People aren't connecting rhetoric with what people are, what, what any candidate is actually going to do for people.
JANSING: You know, if only it was as simple as Crispen the cat saying, “Mom, I want attention and I want food.”
RUPERT: We would get it immediately, if that's all it was.
JANSING: Rupert, Basil Smikle to be continued.
