Retiring Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) on Friday unloaded on President Biden and the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), blaming them for steering the Democrat Party into oblivion come the November midterms.
Murphy spilled the beans, telling Politico Playbook the Democrat leadership would beat her and other moderate Democrats “into submission” for the purpose of pushing a radical agenda item that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) proposed.
“I can’t tell you the number of times I said, ‘You can’t keep promising rainbows and unicorns when your political reality is such narrow margins in the House and a dead-even Senate,’” Murphy said. “They took the difference between rainbows and unicorns and political reality — which is anger and disappointment — and turned that anger and disappointment against their own members.”
Murphy said hardball tactics are consistently used by Democrats to push members to “take one [vote] for the team” in order to satisfy the Democrat leadership, such as Biden’s lieutenants at the DCCC.
“Some of these members who would come to me would say … ‘I can’t afford to tick off the DCCC and have them put my money at risk,’ or, ‘I can’t afford to have my base attacking me. I can’t afford to have the millions of dollars of ads that I’m watching run in your district run against me,’” Murphy explained. “It’s unfortunate that that’s where we have gotten.”
Murphy slammed Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), the DCCC’s chief, as having a self-interest in pushing members to vote for radical policies if it means a promotion for himself from party leaders in the future:
“I believe that the DCCC exists for one reason and one reason alone, and that is incumbent protection and expanding the majority,” Murphy said. “I don’t believe that the person who runs the DCCC should be a member who’s elected, because inevitably that member … has further aspirations in the Democratic leadership. And in order to ascend in Democratic leadership, you have to secure the progressive vote. And securing the progressive vote makes it difficult for you to also then protect moderates and create space for them to do what they need to do to win and hold seats. … I think that’s just … a structure that is misaligned to what should be the sole purpose of the DCCC, incumbent retention and expanding the majority.”
Not everyone agrees with Murphy. Congressional candidate and state representative Anthony Sabatini (R-FL), who is running in the district from which Murphy is retiring, told Breitbart News that Murphy is just whining about party politics because the Democrat Party lost control of Florida. In recent months, voter registration has tipped Republican for the first time in history.
Noting Murphy voted with Pelosi the vast majority of the time, Sabatini suggested she has no right to complain about the radical Democrat Party. “Despite her rhetoric, Stephanie Murphy was very left-wing and voted with Nancy Pelosi 98% of the time—and voted against the entire MAGA agenda,” Sabatini said.
“The truth is, the radical communist Democrat party has gone so far left that even hardened liberals like Murphy aren’t extreme enough to gain leadership positions,” he added.
Murphy is among the 31 House Democrats who have decided not to run for reelection for various motives, such as the desire to retire from the public eye for personal reasons, or to run for a different office. This amounts to the largest mass exodus in three decades. The retirements will greatly favor Republicans due to the incumbent advantage.
Republicans are heading into the midterms leading Democrats on the nation’s top issues, according to polling. Among the top issues that favor Republicans are the economy (48 – 35 percent), jobs (46 – 37 percent), immigration (45 – 38 percent), and energy (42 – 39 percent).