This seems like a worse own goal than “defund the police” as a slogan, best of intentions but the execution was so bad.
I’d put heavy money on Republicans running chunks of this interview hard during the run up to the midterms.
I have a sinking fear this will be one of those tragicomic moments of earnest, well intentioned progressives inadvertently helping trump, like when many sat out the 2024 election in a misguided attempt to somehow help Palestinians.
This interview has likely made that task harder.
Yes, the DSA looked great in a primary against the Left half of the populace in Michigan and Maine. Maine, well, we saw the ungoodness there. In Michigan, the concern is that Sayed may be a weaker general election candidate than the alternatives. (Much like how a large part of the Dems’ chances in Texas is because Paxton won the primary and is considered a much weaker general election candidate.)
More importantly, the folks who might win the Senate for the Dems are coming from generally Red states, Iowa, Ohio and Texas. Which is exactly why this interview is goddamn terrifying! No Dem in the red states which are needed for the Senate wants to fight about abolishing prisons or the border.
He didn’t directly state in the quotes that he disliked the DSA candidates, merely that planning a campaign was becoming more complex when you have to explicitly state policy stances which are divisive and next to impossible to actually be realized during their term, such as police abolition.
Of course, Fox News and The Hill took that and ran with it.