http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279940-dem-party-chief-were-ready-for-trumpMay 15, 2016, 07:12 am
Dem party chief: ‘We’re ready for Trump’
By Kyle Balluck
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz late Saturday said Democrats need to treat Donald Trump’s candidacy as a “real threat.”
“At the DNC we are not going to make the same mistake his Republican opponents made,” she said at the Alaska State Convention, according to prepared remarks.
“We’re ready for Trump.”
The Florida congresswoman said Democrats will hold the presumptive Republican presidential nominee accountable “for the damage he’s doing as a candidate and the damage he’s promising he would do as president.”
Wasserman Shultz said Trump, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are “getting ready to sing ‘kumbaya’ and give us everything they’ve got” after a “nasty, mud-slinging primary.”
She said Trump “isn’t something new,” adding that the billionaire is “just the old Republican brand, but with a little extra bronzer on — he’s that much more dangerous.”
Wasserman Shultz attacked Trump’s temperament and judgment, lack of foreign policy experience, and his “decades-long record of denigrating women.”
“He exploits racial anxieties and cultural fears,” she added.
Wasserman also said she believes Democrats can eventually turn Alaska blue, pointing to statistics that show the percentage of Alaskans casting their vote for the Democrat has increased in every presidential election since 2000.
“Don’t believe for a second that just because the pundits like to paint Alaska red and say it isn’t a battleground state means you’re sidelined,” she said.
“This has already been an exciting election year nationally. Working together, I know we can [beat] Dump Trump."
