Democratic Strategist Examines the Democratic Party

Steve Adubato and Julie Roginsky, President, Optimus Communications and Democratic Strategist, talk about the future of the Democratic Party, the political landscape in New Jersey, and 2020 presidential candidate U.S. Senator Cory Booker.

5/11/19 #309

Excerpt:

"We are pleased to be joined by, once again, Julie Roginsky, who is Democratic strategist, president of Optimist Communications. How you doing? I'm great, how are you? You've had the most fascinating career. Thank you so much for saying that. It's been interesting. It's been interesting. By the way, can I plug your podcast? I'd love for you to. What's it called? It's called Saltier Politics. You could find it on iTunes, you could find it across every pod beam, and it's great. You should come on. What do you do? You know, we talked about... we interviewed people and what I found... and you know this because you have a public affairs show but what I found, having done cable news for so long, is you really can't delve into issues or discussions in a sound bite environment. And so what we try to do, my co-host and I, is have a show where we could actually talk about issues in a really in-depth, prepared way. and then we talk about what makes us salty that week in politics. Love it. By the way, make sure you check out our podcast Think Tank, the podcast. You'll be seeing more of it if you look at our website. So, I'm curious about something, can we go through some issues? Sure. Number one, oh... I got to do this. The Democratic Party... you know Democratic party... you know politics better than anyone I know... is there one Democratic Party? Or is this the Socialist, progressive wing of the party, the Ocasio-Cortez wing, and then Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and some others over here... what's the party? We're a big tent. Wherever... That's a big tent. That's a big tent. Listen, it's a big tent, and the nice thing is we haven't been hijacked by any one segment of the party the way the Republicans have been by Donald Trump. What are you implying? I'm not implying, I'm saying it outright Steve. I'm saying it straight into the camera. So the Republicans have been, quote unquote... Hijacked by Donald Trump. Make the case. ... by Trumpism. Well, I mean you have previous people... Republicans... long-standing Republicans like Lindsey Graham who were saying Donald Trump is a threat to this nation... He did. Who are saying... he did. And now they are groveling at his feet. Making excuses for all sorts of things that they would never find excusable before. He has completely taken over the Republican Party and I'm frankly embarrassed for a lot of people that I respected in the party. Mitt Romney is a great example. Somebody who thought Donald Trump was dangerous said that he should absolutely release his taxes yesterday or the day..."