Howard Dean: 'Whiny' Progressives Don't Want to Win, They Just Want to Be 'Pure'

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean took aim at the “whiny” left in an interview on Saturday in response to progressives’ criticism of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).

“There has always been a section of the left, which I call the whiny party — the party that doesn’t really wanna win, they just wanna be pure, and if they go down swinging purely, then that’s fine,” Dean told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on AM Joy.

“Well, the problem with that is it leaves behind the people who really need their help,” he continued. “If we’re gonna have a single-payer or Medicare for all or whatever we’re gonna have in healthcare that covers every American, as every other industrialized country has, then we all have to pull together.”

Dean’s response comes after several media outlets such as Mic and the Week ran stories about why some progressives, especially those who backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for president in 2016, criticized potential 2020 candidates including Harris, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D).

Dean said those who criticized Harris and other candidates were doing the Democratic party a disservice.

“And people who sit out or crank on some candidate because they did this or that that wasn’t to their purity test are basically turning their back on the very people they pretend to represent,” Dean said. “So I don’t have a lot of patience with this wing of the progressive party.”

Despite Dean’s claim that the Democratic Party needs to come together to support Democratic candidates, he tweeted Tuesday that he would not support the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) if they backed pro-life candidates.