2020 — CNN’s Harry Enten: Elizabeth Warren Is ‘Below-Par Candidate’

CNN Politics senior writer and analyst Harry Enten branded Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) a “below-par candidate” following the launch of the progressive firebrand’s 2020 presidential exploratory committee Monday. He highlighted that Hillary Clinton won Massachusetts by a wider margin in the 2016 presidential election than the senator’s 2018 re-election bid.

A partial transcript is as follows:

PAMELA BROWN: You say Warren’s best performance in the 2018 midterms is one of the weakest for a Democratic Senate candidate, even though she won by 24 points. Explain that. What about those numbers?

HARRY ENTEN: The fact is Massachusetts is a very blue state. Hillary Clinton won there by 27 points. Liz Warren only won there by 24, and keep in mind that 2018 was a much better year for Democrats nationwide. The fact that Liz Warren did worse than Hillary Clinton in Massachusetts suggests that perhaps she’s a below-par candidate.

PAMELA BROWN: Let’s talk about the CNN poll from earlier this month showing that she’s [Warren] fairly low on the list of front runners in Democrats’ choice for their nominee. What does her home state polling tell us about a possible 2020 matchup?

HARRY ENTEN: Usually, if you look at people’s home state polling, you would, in fact, see that they are well out ahead. If you look at Joe Biden’s polling in Deleware or Bernie Sanders’ polling in Vermont, they both poll particularly well in their home states. But in Massachusetts, when matched up against her opponents in a potential Democratic primary, she’s actually polling third or fourth, behind Biden and Sanders, which suggests something quite wrong, right? Because if the people in your own home state, if the Democrats in your own home state are saying, “You know, maybe we prefer another Democrat,” perhaps it says when other people nationwide are exposed to Liz Warren, they might not like her as much.