On Tuesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated that Democrats lack credibility on the economy and “we can’t build housing, in part, because of all the rules, all the regulations, all of the incompetence of Democratic governance.”
Smith began by stating, “My party needs to re-establish our credibility on a number of issues. It’s not going to be enough — even if it is strategic and tactical and smart — to criticize what Donald Trump does. We have to do that and we have to do it intelligently. It’s just not going to be enough, because we don’t have the credibility that we need on issues like immigration, like DEI, dealing with racism and discrimination, like the economy. I think we need to spend more time re-establishing our own credibility, not just bashing on what Trump does.”
Host Chris Cuomo then said that he agrees with this sentiment if it’s applied to people like Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), but not Smith himself, and Smith agreed.
Smith further stated, “I just spent all day today down in Olympia, the Washington state capital, meeting with state legislators, meeting with the governor, meeting with other key legislators and saying, look, if we govern well, that’s the best thing we can do to counter Trump. So, what are we doing about crime, about homelessness, about drug abuse, about affordable housing?”
He continued, “I spent a lot of time today talking about affordable housing. This is a core progressive idea. To your point about what working class, blue-collar Democrats…want to work on, making housing affordable, but we can’t build housing, in part, because of all the rules, all the regulations, all of the incompetence of Democratic governance. Fix that, okay, show people that we can build housing, show people that we do believe in opportunity and personal responsibility. You can believe in both, and you will do a better job of delivering for people if you do.”
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