Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that Democrats are at risk of losing in this fall’s elections.
Psaki spoke as an NBC contributor on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think that Democrats, if the election is about who is the most extreme, as we saw Kevin McCarthy touch on there with Marjorie Taylor Greene — I’ll say her name, sitting over his left side — then they’re going to win. If it is a referendum on the president, they will lose, and they know that,” she said.
For example, a recent The Washington Post/ABC poll showed Biden with a 39 percent approval rating. In the poll, which had a 3.5 percentage point margin of error, 53 percent of those surveyed disapproved of Biden’s performance.
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Psaki on Sunday said Biden is not the only problem facing Democrats.
Democrats “also know that crime is a huge vulnerability for Democrats, I would say one of the biggest vulnerabilities,” she said.
“And if you look at Pennsylvania, for example, what’s been interesting to me is it’s always you follow the money, and where are people spending money,” she said.
“And in Pennsylvania, the Republicans have been spending millions of dollars on the air on crime ads against Fetterman because that’s where they see his vulnerability. So yes, the economy is hanging over everything. But you do have to look at state-by-state factors, and crime is a huge issue in the Pennsylvania race,” she said, referring to Democratic U.S. senate candidate and Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman.
Will Democrats perform well in the midterm elections?
One GOP strategist affirmed that the focus on crime is intentional, according to The Washington Post.
“People are increasingly concerned about their families’ safety,” Republican strategist Charlie Gerow said. “I think the message has to be pretty straightforward: Support law enforcement that fully funds police and a system that enforces the law while Democrats have more empathy for perpetrators than victims.”
Psaki said Biden is fighting to be able to get legislation through Congress.
“And now, the gloves are off. He’s got to maintain control of at least one house of Congress,” she said.
A new report from Yahoo notes that Democrats are bracing for a high Republican turnout.
The “MAGA surge is real,” Yahoo reported, citing a presentation by America Votes, a Democratic group that rallies voters to the polls.
“Democrats know that they are competitive in many races that might have been blowouts a few months ago, for a few reasons: The Supreme Court’s decision eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion, as well as ebbing gas prices and a string of legislative accomplishments by Democrats,” the presentation said.
“But what we’re up against: GOP turnout will be very high,” the presentation said,
“Democrats expect this MAGA surge largely because turnout in Republican primaries so far this year has been sky-high, just as it was in 2021,” the presentation said.
