Anderson Cooper Asks If Election Night Results Are ‘A Message’ That Democrats Are ‘Too Far Left’

Tuesday’s election results inspired CNN’s Anderson Cooper to question whether Democrats had received a “message” that they were “too far left.”

As of late Tuesday evening, Republican Glenn Youngkin appeared set to defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, leading by 2.7 percent of the vote with 95 percent of precincts reporting. And in New Jersey, as of that CNN segment, Republican Jack Ciattarelli was leading Democratic incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy by more than 4 percent of the vote with 62 percent counted.

“How much of this is a message just to the Democratic Party that it’s too far left?” Cooper pondered during an evening CNN panel. “That if you’re The Squad or if you’re someone who’s been calling for defund police or socialism or democratic socialism,” he added, before CNN contributor and Democratic activist Van Jones interrupted to object.

“I wonder if Terry had been able to stick on a message of economic progress — you know, family leave and minimum wage and that kind of stuff, then maybe we wouldn’t be making this argument,” Jones said. “In other words, there was an economic message from the Democrats that was available. It was necessary given the rising cost. But what happened is we pulled out of our own federal bill, the family leave stuff. You’re undermining the economic message for Terry McAuliffe and leave him with, ‘Trump is bad and vaccine mandates are good.’ I don’t know if it’s an up or down vote on progressive politics.”

Republican Scott Jennings opined after Jones. “I was stunned,” Jennings said. “When he handed Youngkin the issue of the campaign — ‘I don’t think parents should be involved in the schools.’ And literally on the eve of the election he’s running around with Randi Weingarten, the head of the union that kept the schools closed — it’s not just a curriculum issue. The schools were closed. Parents were pissed. They knew they should have been open. And McAuliffe not only handed it to Youngkin on a tee, then at the end of the campaign flipped everyone off and said, ‘I’m going to run on it even harder.'”

Watch above via CNN.

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