Shawn Griffiths
In the latest episode of the Andrew Yang Podcast, formally known as the Forward Podcast, the former presidential candidate and co-founder of the Forward Party sits down with former ABC News White House Correspondent Tara Palmeri to talk about the Wisconsin special election, Elon Musk, and discuss the question:
Is the Democratic Party headed for a repeat of 2024 in the next presidential election?
Palmeri, who now writes The Red Letter on Substack, says she went independent because "the news media has become so politically aligned with one party or the other, and the truth is I have always seen myself as an 'equal opportunity assassin' as a reporter."
And she certainly didn't pick sides in her conservation with Yang. On the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Palmeri says that whenever Elon Musk gets involved in an election it seems to up the cost of that election and she asks, is this going to be the norm for every competitive election in the US?
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Palmeri sees the recent elections as a loss for Trump and Musk. However, Yang also brings up the precarious state the Democratic Party is in as potential 2028 contenders start to make their move because the party currently has no direction at a time when voters aren't happy with either party.
And for the Democrats, this includes many of their own members. "I think there is a real anti-party movement happening right now," Palmeri says -- something Yang notes is backed up by public opinion data.
Yang looks back at 2024 and reminds his audience that even though the Democratic Party ran as the pro-democracy party, voters who cared about the state of democracy were split 50-50 in the election, and it may be because the party canceled primaries and anointed its nominee without voter consent.
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And now, the Democratic Party doesn't have clear leadership or direction. Yang and Palmeri go through the list of likely Democratic candidates and discuss their odds and what their leadership might mean for a party that could be headed for a repeat of 2024 if they don't learn any lessons and be responsive to voters.
Check out the full conversation above, including Yang's big idea for the Democratic Party.