Ed Rendell: Democrats Need To Take Trump Seriously
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell sees trouble ahead for Democrats if they don't unify around Hillary Clinton and take the threat of Donald Trump seriously.
During an interview on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT with Rich Zeoli, Rendell said that, first, the internal email leak from DNC servers published on Wikileaks will make it nearly impossible for Clinton to win the support traditionally required from primary voters of Bernie Sanders.
"The key for Secretary Clinton is to get between 85 and 90 percent of the people that voted for Senator Sanders during the primary. I think the email situation was a big setback. She had been in the polls, 78 percent of the Sanders voters said they would vote for Secretary Clinton, but I think the email situation probably set that back seven, eight, nine points. Last night was good night. Not only did Bernie deliver a great message, so did Michelle Obama. I don't know if you saw Sarah Silverman when she turned to the Bernie section and she said to you Bernie or bust guys, you're being ridiculous. She was very effective. I think that may have repaired some of the damage, but I don't think we're anywhere near the 85 to 90 percent we need. I don't think we'll get the last ten percent. I think they either won't vote or they'll vote for the Green Party candidate."
Secondly, he thinks Donald Trump's message is being received very well in Pennsylvania, putting the state up for grabs in November.
"I hope there isn't a Democrat out there that thinks that this is locked up. If we do, that's a prescription for defeat. Donald Trump is a very difficult candidate in Pennsylvania because he delivers a message that I think is far too oversimplified, but it's a message that keys in to people's frustration. We've lost a lot of manufacturing jobs, a lot of construction jobs and people seem to ignore the fact that Donald Trump, when it came time to help American manufacturing, he took every product that he sells and took it out of the country, but that doesn't seem to make a difference and he's scoring well with a lot of working class Democrats. We'd be nuts to ignore that."