CNN’s John Avlon called out Democrats on Tuesday for being “cynical and hypocritical” for funding candidates backed by former President Donald Trump.
Democratic groups have spent hundreds of thousands to over a million dollars on Republican candidates labeled as “extreme” or “far-right” in the hopes that they will be easily defeated in the midterm elections. The Democratic Governors Association spent more than $821,000 on campaign ads to meddle in the Republican primary, the Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has spent over $400,000 on an advertisement for Republican Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer’s Trump-backed opponent.
“It’s incredibly cynical and hypocritical,” Avlon said. “It’s also part of a trend. Democrats trying to meddle in Republican primaries, not to aid honorable Republicans, but to try and kneecap them. It’s a dangerous game to play because with the gravitational pull of midterms pulling away from the president of its party, there’s a non-zero chance that some of the extreme candidates could win despite being objectively worse fits for their district.”
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“Democrats are targeting honorable outliers like Peter Meijer,” he added.
He described Democrats’ efforts to “erase” the districts of Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and John Katko of New York, both of whom voted to impeach Trump. Moderate Republicans opposing Trump’s leadership have bowed out of running for re-election, or have been voted out by their constituents. (RELATED: CNN Panel Rips Dems For ‘Meddling’ In GOP Primaries To Boost Pro-Trump Candidates)
“Our democratic Republic depends on people putting country over party, but our usually zero-sum, partisan political system rewards the opposite, and in Washington, D.C., getting re-elected is held in higher regard than trying to do the right thing. For our democracy to endure, we need far more political figures with the courage to stand up to the extremes in their own party,” Avlon argued.
Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger called the DCCC’s move “disgusting” during a Tuesday interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
“I think it’s disgusting because yeah, you may think you’ll have an easier time winning. I’m gonna tell you after January there’s gonna be a few of these people. Look at [Republican Sen] Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania. Look at [Republican Sen.] Darren Bailey in Illinois, an election denier … You’re gonna have election deniers win. So while I think a certain number of Democrats truly understand democracy is threatened, don’t come to me after having spend money supporting an election denier in a primary, and then come to me and say ‘where are all the good Republicans?'”
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Kinzinger said the most important aspect of the political system is defending democracy, rather than “playing DCCC politics.”