'We have quit talking about working Americans, keeping America safe, doing the things that we did when I joined this party,' Chuck Rocha said
Dem strategist Chuck Rocha says Trump's appeal is he 'sounds like the Democrats' from 1989
Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha argued that President Trump's appeal is that he runs on the common sense policies Democrats have abandoned for years.
Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha argued that President Trump’s popularity can be explained by the fact he embraces the policies Democrats once stood for.
Many Democrats, still reeling from Trump’s victory in November, are still trying to figure out how their party lost to somebody as controversial as Trump.
CNN’s "Laura Coates Live" featured a segment on Friday where the host and her guests took questions from callers about American politics.
One caller inquired, "My question is, Donald Trump is a very scary guy, what makes him so popular?"
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Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha lamented that Trump's popularity is driven by his embrace of practical policies that Democrats abandoned years ago.
"This is my favorite question," Rocha replied. "We‘ve talked about it on this program before. I joined the Democratic Party in 1989 because I wanted to fight NAFTA. I wanted to drain the swamps. I wanted to make sure that my tax dollars weren‘t going to foreign wars or wasted."
The Democratic strategist then argued, "That sounds like Donald Trump today. That‘s why we lose to him, is we’ve let him steal our verbiage. We have quit talking about working Americans, keeping America safe, doing the things that we did when I joined this party. And that’s the reason — he is scary, but he‘s not scary to enough people to lose elections because he sounds like the Democrats and why I joined this party."
Former Trump campaign advisor Bryan Lanza rejected the idea that Trump is scary altogether.
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President Trump is widely credited for having reshaped the Republican platform. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"Listen, I think Trump is not scary when you think about what’s scary without Trump in Washington, D.C." he said.
Instead, he proposed what would actually be scary is "an out of control bureaucracy that’s invading our lives every day more and more, and people want to change from that."
"And I think that‘s why — you know, I‘m sorry you feel scared, but I think more and more people feel comfortable with what‘s going on," he added.
"You should be sitting here. I‘m scared," Rocha quipped.
"I’m not scared. I’m a Latino and I’m not scared," Lanza joked in reply, getting a laugh from Rocha.
Alexander Hall is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to
