Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is now a millionaire, had called millionaire senators “immoral” when he first ran for Senate in the 1970s.
Few fights have Democrats more certain that they have the upper hand against President Trump than the one over border security: His plans to build walls, separate immigrant families and punish asylum seekers have alienated voters since he took office.
Yet some Democrats fear their presidential candidates may embrace the one strategy that could dismay voters even more than Trump’s emphasis on deportation — ignoring Americans’ fears about porous borders altogether.
The reluctance of Democratic candidates to address law and order challenges at the border has some of the party’s seasoned operatives and activists fearing a trap.
“If Democrats don’t change their narrative on this, Trump is going to cut them up,” said Jeff Faux, co-founder of the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank supported by organized labor. “They have to start dealing with this and convincing people they are for secure borders.”
“Trump, in people’s minds may not have the answer, but the Republicans at least acknowledge there is a problem,” said a veteran Democratic pollster affiliated with one of the presidential candidates who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The Democratic candidates don’t. They are afraid of failing some kind of litmus test that isn’t even there.”
“If voters perceive we are for open borders, that is a big problem.”
^In a poll by Quinnipiac University in July, half of voters said they believed the president is racist, but a larger group, 60%, said they believed Democrats were more interested in exploiting immigration issues for political gain than in finding real solutions.
“Democrats can dismiss what Trump says as racist, and much of it is,” said Faux. “But much of it also has resonance with voters… This is a big hole in the Democratic Party posture that Trump is going to drive a truck through.”
“I DID NOTHING WRONG,” Trump said. “If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Of the many things he's said that show his complete misunderstanding of how government works, that one is top five.
The median wealth for young white Americans is $46,000, compared to $2,900 for young black Americans.
Here’s a look at how Biden’s first two campaigns went. (Hint: not well.)
1987: Soaring oratory and plagiarism
With the end of the Reagan era just around the corner, Bush was already the GOP’s presumptive nominee. Sen. Gary Hart, a Colorado Democrat, was an exciting, young reform candidate who was hoping to become his party’s choice after a narrowly losing in 1984. Then reports emerged that Hart was having a sexual relationship outside of his marriage. His campaign burned up like a meteor in the atmosphere, leaving no clear front-runner. That gave Biden a clearer opening.
In his announcement four weeks later, Biden urged a return to idealism and for the establishment to yield to a younger generation.
"Nobody was more explicit back in ’87 in sounding the generational trumpet than Joe Biden,” Taylor said.
His challenge to the old guard had become a hallmark of his career. After all, he was just 29 when he unseated a two-term senator in a 1972 upset.
Biden also hoped to capitalize on his gift of oratory and his ability to assemble a coalition of working-class and black voters. His critics, however, saw him as long-winded and “all flash and no substance,” Taylor reported at the time.
Biden hadn’t even been running for president six months when the accusation came. A videotape revealed that Biden had cribbed elements of a speech given by British Labor leader Neil Kinnock, among others. The details of Kinnock’s story, which broadly extolled the vigor of his coal-mining ancestors, didn’t exactly jibe with the facts in Biden’s own Pennsylvania background.
“It was one of those things where you pull on the thread, and it keeps on unraveling,” Taylor said.
Biden, needing to extinguish the scandal to save his campaign, attempted to explain away his borrowing of Kinnock’s words, but he admitted to a plagiarism episode in law school that had nearly gotten him expelled.
Biden, who was serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also faced considerable pressure from Republicans, as Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork prepared for confirmation hearings.
“He was hurting both causes,” said Paul Kane, The Post’s senior congressional correspondent.
The circumstances forced him to drop out of the race, but not before publicly raising the possibility of sabotage by a rival. Indeed, a member of the campaign of Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who would go on to become the Democratic nominee, had given the plagiarism story to the press and was fired as a result.
Not long after dropping out, Biden suffered an aneurysm that nearly killed him.
2007: Gaffes and tough competitors
After Biden’s 1988 campaign failed, the opportunity to run for president seemed limited for Biden, Post senior political correspondent Dan Balz said. Biden had an opportunity in 2004, but again passed.
The chance wouldn’t truly come again for until February 2007, when he announced another bid.
But, as had happened nearly 20 years earlier, gaffes struck. The New York Observer quoted him describing fellow Sen. Barack Obama as “articulate and bright and clean,” which many viewed as racially insensitive. He had made comments about other ethnic groups, as well. Regardless of his history of gaffes and attempts to clean them up, Biden faced serious head winds, Balz said.
“He was running against the biggest brand in the party [Hillary Clinton] and this sort of supernova [Obama],” he said.
Biden dropped out again after a dismal showing in the Iowa caucuses.