DNC Chairman: The GOP Is Built on “Fraud, Fear, and Facism”

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Now, this past week, there have been primaries. It’s primary season underway in the United States. Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate race is still too close to call. While Democrats strategize to keep their majority in the Senate and the House. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison joins Michel Martin to discuss the politics of this year’s midterm elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHEL MARTIN, CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks, Christiane. Jaime Harrison, Mr. Chairman, thank you so much.

JAIME HARRISON, CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thank you so much for having me.

MARTIN: Since you and I are speaking now, primaries were just held in what have been some important states for Democrats and also for Republicans, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, also, you know, Idaho, Kentucky, and Oregon. What do you think we’ve learned from the results that we’ve seen so far?

HARRISON: Well, one of the things that I was very excited to see, we had strong turnouts from Democrats. And particularly in two of our — the targeted battleground States, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, we saw 400,000 more voters come out in the Democratic Primary over what we have seen previously in 2018. And similarly, we had very strong turnout in North Carolina as well. And so, that polls well for us. We have gotten some really strong candidates who — Pennsylvania and North Carolina to be our standard- bearers for the United States Senate. And I think that’s a great thing as well. And what I’ve seen is coming out of the primary that — the coalescing that sometimes is very difficult to take place after a primary. It’s happening and it’s happening very quickly and very strongly. And so, that’s what you want to do. You want to see the party come together to support the nominee so that we are well-positioned to win the race in November.

MARTIN: And what do you think we’ve learned about the results on the Republican side?

HARRISON: It’s a hot mess. I mean, you’ve got Donald Trump pulling the Republican Party in one direction. I mean, you take, for instance, in Pennsylvania. Mastriano, who is now the Republican candidate for governor. This guy is a QAnon believer. He believes in the big lie. He participated in the January 6th insurrection. And he now is their standard-bearer for the governorship in the Great State of Pennsylvania. And then you look at the Republican Primary for the United States Senate in Pennsylvania, and it’s even a bigger mess. You got one guy who actually lives in New Jersey and the other guy who actually lived in Connecticut. All vying to be the next senator from the Great State of Pennsylvania. All trying to be the next Donald Trump and out Donald Trump each other. But that is what we see with these ultra-MAGA Republicans who are running for office these days. Instead of fighting for the people, instead of trying to do things that improve the lives of people, they’re trying to kowtow to Donald Trump. And that’s just sick.

MARTIN: Well, OK. But let’s talk about what effect that that may have electorally. I mean, the fact is, you know, analysts going into this year have basically said that the Democrats are in a world of hurt, in part because it’s just structural that midterm elections tend to be tough on the — whatever party holds the White House. In addition to that, there are more Democrats who are up for reelection in more vulnerable places or in places that the — they’re battlegrounds in part because they are in play. And on top of that, you have people looking at the fact that Republicans, for whatever reason, have been willing to co-allow around a very narrow basket of issues, right? And what we’ve seen is that the former president’s endorsement alone isn’t enough to pull candidates across the finish line, right? But we also see that this willingness to embrace election denialism has taken hold in the Republican Party. So, people are saying all that together says that this is going to be a tough year for Democrats. Do you agree?

HARRISON: No, I don’t agree. I mean, analysts said that we couldn’t win runoff elections in Georgia. Well, hell, we didn’t win one, we won two. Hon Ossoff and Reverend Warnock are actually United States Senators in the State of Georgia. You know, pundits in the past said, you know, it’s hard to beat the incumbent president, well you got an incumbent — for incumbent president who’s now golfing in Mar-a-Lago, watching conspiracy theories at movie night every Friday at Mar-a-Lago. So, analysts will say a lot of things. But at the end of the day, if the Democratic Party comes together in terms of being a one page, in terms of message and mission and purpose, I know that we can make our own history. The Republican Party right now is a party that is built on fraud, is a party that is built on fear, and is a party that has been touching on fascism for the past few years now. And it’s very, very dangerous. Think about this in this country. You have one party that has a full-frontal assault on democracy right now. One party that was integral in a coup attempt of the American government, from the legislative branch to the executive branch, and maybe even the judicial branch given Clarence Thomas and his wife’s involvement. They are going after free speech in this country. They love to go after the second amendment, but they got to understand before the second, was the first, which is freedom of speech in this country. Right now, you have a party that is banning books. They’re trying to go after privacy rights and the rights of women to control their own bodies. They’re going after voting rights in this country. They’re attacking the LGBTQ community. They’re asking people — Greg Abbott asking people to report on families that have trans youth. These are things that don’t sound American. They sound like something you’d find in places like Russia. And that is the standard. That is the core of the Republican Party these days.

MARTIN: So, is that the Democrat’s message, that Republicans are dangerous and anti-Democratic? Is that the core of it?

HARRISON: Well, it is. And it’s not just a Democratic message, it’s the reality of the situation right now in this country. We have never seen these types of attacks on our fundamental freedoms. And we all should be very, very frightened by it. The attacks on the press. The cost-in text. This is all in a mainstream of the Republican Party. Who would have ever thought, Michel, that the Republican Party, a party where Donald — when Ronald Reagan, who really was the heart of the Republican Party, as I grew up, as a child who was born in the ’70s and really cut my teeth in understanding politics in the ’80s. And you see how revered Ronald Reagan was, he was the man who said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall, 35 years ago. And now, the — Republican president is basically telling the former KGB agent, Mr. Putin, you know, go ahead. Go rebuild the wall. It’s fine. We’re OK with that.

MARTIN: OK. OK.

HARRISON: They are harder on Mickey Mouse than they are on Vladimir Putin. And that is today’s Republican Party.

MARTIN: And do you think that that message is sufficient for people who are struggling with quality-of-life issues? I’m sure you know the Republican argument, you know, better than anybody, the Republican argument at its core is that this administration, in particular, Democrats in general aren’t addressing quality of life issues like exorbitant gas prices, like the infant formula shortage. Their argument — they’re really not talking on the campaign trail about these anti-Democratic initiatives that you have enumerated, and that people like I cover. But that they are talking about is infant formula shortages and gas prices and inflation. So, what’s your answer?

HARRISON: Well, my answer is what I mentioned earlier, Michel, it’s the Republican hypocrisy. It’s not, you know when I was a teacher, I used to teach my kids, you got to show and not tell. This is talking a lot, but the question is, the bill is on the floor. To address gas prices. To go after our energy producers who are gouging folks at the pump. How do they vote? They vote, no. When they get an opportunity to put people on the Federal Reserve to help address the inflation issues, how do they vote? Well, they don’t even vote. They don’t even show up to the hearing in order to do that in the United States Senate. When they get an opportunity to bring down the cost of insulin, which the last time I — there are diabetic that are Republican, Democratic, and independent. When they get an opportunity to vote on legislation there, what did they do? They vote, no. Last night, they got the opportunity to vote to address infant — the infant formula, for the past week that’s all they wanted to talk about. And 192 Republicans voted, no. On infrastructure, they talk about infrastructure week for four years. And most of the Republicans in the house, many of them in the Senate, voted no. But now since the money is flowing into the States because Joe Biden’s leadership and Democrats are housing the Senate, they want to take credit for it. That is today’s Republican Party. They are built on fraud, fear, fascism, and they are hypocrites. And that is no exaggeration. Just take a look at what their rhetoric is and how they vote when they get an opportunity to address these issues.

MARTIN: One of the structural advantages that the Republicans have is that they control more State Legislatures —

HARRISON: Yes.

MARTIN: — which is that they control voting apparatuses. And they have control of things like the drawing of redistricting maps. Those are realities on the ground. How are you addressing those structural advantages that the Republicans have been working on and have put in place really over the last decade leading to this moment? What’s your answer to that?

HARRISON: Well, you know, that’s been a reality on the ground for the past decade or so, that the Republicans have had more control of statehouses and governor’s mansions. And therefore, even in the last redistricting, it was the same type of process. And so, what we have been doing, and not to so much be reactive but to be proactive, is that we have built the largest voter protection program in the history of the Democratic Party. And instead of starting three months before the election and starting to put voter protection teams and lawyers and all on the ground, we started this well into the beginning of last year. Building out operations in your battleground States to make sure that we have boots on the ground to educate our voters. To make sure we start the registration process of those voters. To organize those voters. And to — all set up to protect those voters once they go to the polls and after they go to the polls to make sure that their votes are counted. And that’s really important.

MARTIN: What are some of those efforts look like?

HARRISON: So, for instance — I’ll give you an example. We have poured millions of dollars into new technology at the DNC for voter protection. So, one of the things that we know that — in Republican states, they love to do this, purge voters from voter rolls. And it tends to be that those voters that they purge from voter rolls our folks from black and brown communities or younger voters, right? So, we decided to invest in some technology so that we are alerted when those purges happen. And that we immediately are able to then link up with the information for those individuals that are purged. And that we can contact them through social media, contact them through organizing movements on the ground, and canvassing, phone calls to immediately get them back on the voter rolls. And to make sure that they know that their names have been taken off by the Republican Party. And that’s just one example of how we’re trying to be proactive.

MARTIN: Fundraising isn’t something is — it’s not always this positive but it’s certainly something, right? It seems that right now, in the first quarter at least, Democrats are doing well. The RNC, the Republican National Community edged out the Democrats in 2021 fundraising slightly. But in the first quarter, the Democrats seemed to be doing well. Again, why do you think that is?

HARRISON: Because, you know, folks are motivated. And we’re doing well on that — because we’re getting a lot of money from big-dollar donors. But a lot of the fundraising, 90 percent of our donors give below $200 to the DNC. And so, for the first time last year — excuse me, we had over a million donors at the DNC and those are small-dollar donors who are very motivated to giving. And when they see things like the leaked opinion come in from the Supreme Court, they see that our fundamental rights in this country are being attacked. And in order — their only — there’s one way to really address that. Is to change the leadership that we’ve had at local levels, in statehouses, in governor’s mansions. And that means that you have to have a well-funded party apparatus. And so, they’re willing to make those commitments to fund us so that we can build that. We are working on a 57 State and territory strategy. And that’s why I’m going all over the country. I’m even going to the ruby-red South, where people have given up on this region. But I haven’t. I believe, fundamentally, that we can do better. That we can compete in these areas. But the first step in competing is showing up. Letting people know that you see them, that you hear them, that you value them. And that’s what this party is all about in my leadership. And that’s what we are going to be doing from now until election season.

MARTIN: What’s the next Georgia? Is it still Georgia? What’s the — what is the race that’s kind of emblematic, you think, of the contrast that you have talked about here?

HARRISON: We’re going to see a number of interesting races because we’ve got some great candidates. A few races that I’m really paying a lot of attention to, and particularly for the senate because I think this — the fight to the senate is so important this year. You know, and it may not be on the radar to some folks, but you know, you got — you know, right now Cheri Beasley and probably Val Demings who could be elected. Two African- American women, elected to the United States Senate, one from Florida, the other one from North Carolina. But I also want folks to understand that in order to keep our majorities in the United States Senate in Georgia, Warnock, in Arizona, Kelly, in Nevada, Cortez Masto, in New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan. We have to make sure that those four get reelected. And then we got some great opportunities down the road in some of these other States. So, it’s going to be an interesting — for all of the politicos out there, it’s going to be an interesting year. But we are in this fight.

MARTIN: So, before I let you go. How are you doing? I mean, do you like this job?

HARRISON: Yes. You know what, I love this party. This party has done so much for me. And I have so much respect and love for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, two of the most decent people I’ve ever gotten an opportunity to meet and work with. You know, I grew up in South Carolina. The son of a teen mom. My first political memory was Jesse Jackson giving a speech at the 1988 convention. And I saw this black man from South Carolina talking to young people, particularly, and giving them hope. And, you know, that was a little mustard seed that was planted in me and continued to grow. And it’s been this party that has given me so much. You know, when — programs that were so necessary for me to thrive. You know, welfare and food stamps and WIC and all of those things, I wouldn’t have gotten classes because my family couldn’t afford it had it not been for the Medicaid program. And so, what I love being chair of this party is that I could get to fight for folks and those issues. I get to support candidates who I know will protect those types of programs. But first and foremost, is the ability to give people hope that our, again, that our better days are ahead of us. And to do it with somebody like Joe Biden, who believes in our State Parties, who is a good and decent person.

MARTIN: Is that enough then? I mean, is that enough for the average voter right now who’s looking at $5 a gallon gas? And whatever raise they got last year is quickly being evaporated in that clause of grocery? Is that enough, the fact that he’s a decent man with a vision, is not enough?

HARRISON: It was enough to motivate 81 million people, the most that have ever voted for a candidate for United States in 2020. And I believe, that fundamentally, as Joe Biden goes all around this country to — and demonstrates to people that he sees them and hears them, he knows the struggles firsthand. Because he’s experienced the pain that many folks are experiencing. I think that will be enough. Because the contrast is a real one. That you have another party on the other side that don’t understand the American people, that aren’t fighting for the American people. They’re just fighting for their own power. I’ll tell you every day that Joe Biden wakes up thinking about how to improve the lives of the American people. I can’t tell you that Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell wake up every day thinking about that. They think about how — what curtains they can put up in their new speaker’s office when the majority leaves office. That is not what you see in the Democratic Party. We’re about the people and delivering for them, every day, in as much as we can.

MARTIN: Mr. Chairman, Jaime Harrison, thank you so much for talking with us. I do hope we’ll talk again.

HARRISON: Thank you so much for having me.