Democrats lost because they 'missed a massive shift in American public opinion in just a few years,' CNN host says
CNN's Fareed Zakaria says Democrats 'blew' the election by ignoring public opinion on immigration
The "GPS" host outlined three reasons why he believes President-elect Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris in his opening monologue over the weekend.
CNN host Fareed Zakaria issued a scathing rebuke of Democrats in an extended monologue over the weekend, blaming the party for misreading public opinion on everything from immigration and charges against President-elect Donald Trump to DEI efforts and woke identity politics.
Addressing Trump's victory for the first time on his show "GPS" Sunday, Zakaria said the Democrats' collosal losses couldn't be attributed to one error or a singular oversight, blaming instead a wider ignorance by the left on key issues that put them at odds and out of touch with American voters.
"At first glance, it would seem easy to explain last Tuesday‘s election as part of a 2024 global wave against incumbents beset by post-Covid turmoil and inflation…so, it might have been preordained that Kamala Harris representing the incumbent administration lost decisively as well. But Harris could have bucked the trend," he began.
DEPRESSED MEDIA REACT TO TRUMP VICTORY: HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY HAVE HAPPENED?
CNN host Fareed Zakaria issued a scathing rebuke of Democrats after Trump secured a second White House term last week. (CNN)
"Employment is strong. Wages are up. Inflation is down. Activity is soaring. More importantly, Donald Trump has many strengths as a political figure, but he also has many weaknesses," the host continued.
Zakaria said Democrats had an opportunity to reclaim political power from Trump after the January 6 Capitol riots when his approval ratings took a hit, "But they blew it."
"The New York Times estimates that Harris will lose the national popular vote by about a point and a half, a first for Democrats since 2004," he told viewers.
The CNN host proceeded to spell out three areas where he believes Democrats got it wrong, thereby costing Harris the election.
"The first big error was the Biden administration’s blindness to the collapse of the immigration system and the chaos at the border" Zakaria said. "An asylum system that was meant for a small number of persecuted individuals was being used by millions to gain legal entry. Instead of shutting it down, liberals branded anyone protesting as heartless and racist. They missed a massive shift in American public opinion in just a few years."
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a concession speech after the 2024 presidential election, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
"In 2020, the percentage of Americans who wanted to decrease immigration was just 28%. By this year, it was 55%."
If Democrats were in touch with this reality, Harris would have taken a different position when asked in an appearance on "The View" how she would have strayed from President Biden on matters of border security, he said.
KAMALA HARRIS' BUNGLED ANSWER ON ‘THE VIEW’ ABOUT BIDEN SEEN AS TURNING POINT IN CAMPAIGN
"Instead of basically saying nothing different, she should have said, ‘I would have shut down the border early and hard,’" the CNN host went on.
The Democrats' second error, according to Zakaria, was their "overzealous misuse of law to punish Trump.
"The most egregious of the cases pursued was Alvin Bragg’s one in New York, one that even he was once skeptical of, but was reportedly pressured by some on the left into pursuing," he said.
The CNN host argued that while some of the charges brought against Trump were "legitimate," the host of them piled on in rapid succession, gave the impression that the legal system was being weaponized to get Trump. It confirmed to his base what it had always believed – that over-educated urban liberals were hypocrites, happy to bend rules and norms when it suited their purposes," he said.
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 06: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 06, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
"Lawfare turned Trump from being a loser into a victor," he told Democrats pointedly.
Their third mistake, Zakaria continued, was the party's fixation on identity politics, "that largely came out of the urban academic bubble, but alienated many mainstream voters."
For example, the term "Latinx" was not well received among the Latino community, he said, but divisive identity politics had morphed into an "obsession" on the left.
"There is an irony in claiming to be pro-Latino by insisting that people use the term Latinx only to discover that Latinos themselves think the word is weird," Zakaria argued.
"This kind of obsession made Democrats view people too much through their ethnic or racial or gender identity and made them miss, for example, that working-class Latinos were moving toward Trump, perhaps, because they were socially conservative or liked his macho rhetoric or even agreed with his hard-line stance on immigration," he continued. "The problem is deeper than one about nouns and pronouns. The entire focus on identity has morphed into something deeply illiberal. Judging people by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character."
The CNN host proceeded to lecture Democrats for embracing university "speech codes" and cancel culture, which have "become ways the left censors or restricts that most cherished of liberal ideas, freedom of speech.
A flag is left at the event held for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Night at Howard University in Washington on November 6, 2024. (REUTERS/Daniel Cole)
"One simple way to think about the lessons of the election is that liberals cannot achieve liberal goals, however virtuous, by illiberal means," he concluded.
Zakaria noted earlier in his monologue that while it's easy to reflect on the party's ignorance "postmortem," he warned about "each of these mistakes at the time," despite "prompting angry responses from the left."
In an interview with PBS in May, the CNN host urged President Biden to "reform the whole" immigration system, calling on him to "learn" from Trump and take "extreme action" to secure the border to better his political chances of securing a second term.
Democrats have spent the days following Trump's resounding victory last week finger pointing and casting blame at different factions of the party for Harris' stunning loss. Some have blamed Biden for failing to suspend his presidential campaign sooner, while others said Harris was to blame for covering up Biden's mental decline.
Yael Halon is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to
