One of the many weaknesses Democrats have is their inability to understand the opposition.
This was most evident following former President Donald Trump’s upset victory against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Democrats were left shell-shocked and bewildered because they just didn’t get Trump’s appeal, nor did they comprehend how repulsive the former secretary of state was to ordinary Americans.
Still, it seems they may get another crack at learning this lesson in the 2024 presidential race, if MSNBC host and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki is any indication.
She correctly identified the threat a strong third-party candidate presents to President Joe Biden’s re-election bid when commenting on a New York Times piece with the same warning.
However, Psaki repeated her party’s mistakes by dismissing the opposition and misunderstanding the candidate’s appeal, this time with the dark horse independent Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Speaking with Mika Brzezinski on “Morning Joe” Monday, Psaki revealed the major threat to Biden’s 2024 re-election prospects.
“These third-party candidates are a huge, huge, huge problem, and there’s a number of them,” Psaki said.
The “Inside With Jen Psaki” host went on to mention Kennedy specifically, noting his name recognition in places like “Georgia … where the Kennedy name is beloved.”
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Psaki claimed that he could slip by in the battleground state because voters “may just not know a lot about the fact that he is an anti-vaxxer, who’s a conspiracy theorist.”
She added that the Democratic National Committee is attempting to get the word out about the perceived problems with Kennedy, an outspoken environmental attorney who initially announced his candidacy as a Democratic challenger to Biden.
“But it needs to be broad, people need to be shouting it from the rooftops, because this is one of the biggest threats to Joe Biden being re-elected, is these third-party candidates,” Psaki said.
Journalist Tom Elliott underscored Psaki’s dismissal of Kennedy as an “anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist” in the caption accompanying the clip of her he posted to social media platform X Thursday.
WH/MSNBC’s @jrpsaki: Third-party candidates like “anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist” @RobertKennedyJr “are a huge problem” pic.twitter.com/3Tig95w6OZ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 21, 2024
At least Psaki is appropriately terrified, but she’s missing the mark as to why Kennedy matters in particular.
It’s true that there has yet to be a viable third-party candidate in modern times, but they’re often enough of a nuisance to sway the election for the main candidates.
According to the Times, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader probably siphoned enough votes from Democrat Al Gore to cost him the 2000 election.
The same may have happened in 2016 when Green Party candidate Jill Stein diverted votes from Clinton in states where she lost to Trump by few votes.
But while Kennedy is currently polling around 13 percent and is thought to be capturing Republican and Democratic votes equally, he’s a different sort of third-party candidate — and it’s clear that Psaki and her ilk don’t understand that.
Vaccine hesitancy, once thought to be a fringe stance, has become more mainstream following the pandemic, as childhood vaccination rates reached a 10-year low in 2023, according to CBS News.
What was once off-putting may now be the very thing that draws voters to Kennedy. The candidate has also joined the fray during an unprecedented race that pits a popular but troubled one-term president against an unpopular incumbent president in a repeat matchup.
Voters who are anti-Trump but can’t bring themselves to pull the lever for Biden will find Kennedy to be a safe harbor — and Psaki can’t wrap her mind around that.
She is likely convinced that Trump is too extreme and Kennedy is just a crackpot, but by doing so, she misses the point that this is uncharted territory for the American electorate.
Trump’s base is fiercely loyal and ready to see this next election through to the end. Meanwhile, Biden’s record of creating misery and poverty is off-putting even to diehard Democrats who would otherwise hold their noses and vote for him anyway.
Those voters will have somewhere else to go with a third-party candidate like Kennedy, who is likely to be a palatable alternative for Biden’s left-leaning base.
Democrats are too blinded by their own ideology to see the appeal of men like Trump and Kennedy, so they will never mount an effective opposition to them.
Once again, Psaki and the rest just don’t understand what exactly they’re up against — but they certainly will come November 2024.
