Chris Matthews said Democrats risk losing 49 states in the 2020 presidential election if Sen. Bernard Sanders becomes the party’s nominee.
MSNBC’s “Hardball” host blasted the Vermont senator as “full of it” for vowing to implement “Medicare for All,” among other “free” programs.
“Nobody just says the obvious,” Mr. Matthews lamented Tuesday. “Bernie, you’re full of it! None of this going to get passed. You’re going to be miserable president, frustrated from the first day cause you’re not going to get Medicare for All, you’re not going to get free college tuition for public universities, you’re not going to get payoffs of all student loans. None of this is going to happen.”
Mr. Mathews added that Democrats faced an ideological identity crisis that puts them at risk of losing in a landslide reminiscent of the 1972 presidential election between Richard Nixon and George McGovern.
“You have to go where you believe,” Mr. Matthews added, the Washington Free Beacon reported. “Are they centrist Democrats? Are they moderate Democrats who believe in a market system and a safety net and decent regulation? The kind of government we’ve had for the modern 20th century, 21st century. … [Moderate Democrats must] get out there and say, I disagree with socialism. I believe in the markets.”
The MSNBC host then recounted how far-left Democrats celebrated the prospect of winning in 1972 prior to an electoral shellacking.
“I think he’s wrong,” he said. “I think he’ll never get it done, and this country will never go that direction. And, by the way, we’ll lose 49 states. And by the way, John Heilemann, I was there in 1972 at the Democratic convention, when the people on the left were dancing in glee. … They went on to lose 49 states in their glee.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.