Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Scott Jennings Says He’d Be Shocked If Democrats Don’t Nominate Socialist In 2028

Screenshot/YouTube/Manhattan Institute

Republican strategist Scott Jennings asserted he would be stunned if the Democratic Party did not nominate a socialist for president in 2028 during a Manhattan Institute interview posted on Tuesday.

Jennings’ comments in the interview posted to the Manhattan Institute’s YouTube channel followed Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s Nov. 4 victory against former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The Republican strategist predicted that the passion of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party would be unbeatable.

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“[T]hat’s where their energy is. It’s obvious. It’ll be shocking to me if they don’t nominate a socialist for president in 2028,” Jennings said. “They fought it off in ’16. They fought it off in ’20. They’re not going to fight it off in 2028.”

Manhattan Institute President Reihan Salam told Jennings he believed Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear would win the nomination and be “flanked by socialist advisers.”

“I don’t know about that. I think someone has to be able to channel the emotional energy … You have to be able to absorb and reflect the emotional energy of the electorate,” Jennings replied. “That’s what [President Donald] Trump got about the Republicans in ’16 that none of the other 17 got. It’s what Trump got about the country last year. It’s what Mamdani, I guess, got about, you know, enough people here in New York. You have to be able to absorb and reflect the emotional energy of enough people to win.”

“And it requires a bit of showmanship. It doesn’t require advisers. It requires a bit of personal talent and showmanship. That’s part of the game now. And so my impression is it’ll be somebody like that,” he added. “It won’t be a milquetoast person going, ‘Well, but I’ve got a whole politburo here that’ll help me.’ It’ll be somebody who can personally understand the energy and reflect it back.”

Jennings said it would be difficult for Beshear to compete with a socialist candidate.

“He’ll have a hard time, I think, competing with people who are more authentically radical anti-American socialists. But that’s what the Democrats want,” he said. “They want somebody who thinks America’s rotten at the core. They want somebody who thinks capitalism has failed. And they want somebody who’d like to rip all of it out and install some other very un-American ideology. Beshear, I think, would have a hard time keeping up with the emotional energy of that.”

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ran for president as a Democrat in 2016 and 2020. He asserted on “Flagrant” in May that both of his campaigns faced “hatred” from the “Democratic establishment.”

“[T]he establishment did not want to open the door. They hated the idea for all these people whose hands were a little bit dirty, who didn’t have PhDs or weren’t wealthy — imagine walking in: ‘It’s my party, man. You ain’t getting in. We will fight you in the most ruthless ways that we can.’ And that’s the struggle,” Sanders said. “Are they gonna open the door, or are they prepared to lose elections, literally, and … go down with the Titanic?”