Jake Tapper Confronts Harris Campaign Co-Chair on Latino Vote Claims: ‘How Did You Personally Get It So Wrong?’ | Video

November 7, 2024 @ 7:19 PM

Harris/Walz Campaign national co-chair and California Rep. Robert Garcia told NPR on Election Day that Kamala Harris would “win the Latino vote overwhelmingly.” That’s something that ultimately did not come to fruition, as Jake Tapper pointed out Thursday on “The Lead.”

While speaking to Garcia during the CNN broadcast, Tapper asked point blank, “How did you personally get it so wrong?”

“There’s a Latina producer on my staff from Los Angeles who’s been seeing this phenomenon of the Latino community moving right for years,” the host added. “I don’t think she was surprised. I know she wasn’t surprised by what happened.”

Garcia acknowledged that he spoke with “numerous community groups” in New Mexico and Arizona and also met with undecided voters before the election. “Many of us in Congress believed that with the Latino vote, we were beginning to consolidate around Vice President Harris, and that was just not the case.”

“Look, she still won, obviously, Latinas, overwhelmingly, she won the Latino vote overall, but there’s a lot of work to do with Latino men, and I think that’s something that we as Democrats have to engage in, and I think particularly for those of us that are Latinos,” he added.

Garcia also disagreed with the idea that Democrats are “simply out of touch with working people,” as Tapper put it. “I think, first and foremost, the Democratic Party is the party of working people,” the Long Beach representative said. “It has always been the party of working people, and will continue to be so in the future.”

Though the party won congressional seats, he continued, “There’s a lot of work to do to ensure that we are doubling down on the issues that matter to working people. And that’s something that I think our party, our leadership in the House, recognizes, certainly, folks across the country in our state houses recognize, and we’ve just got to do a better job.”

One way Democrats can improve is to “do a better job of not just saying what we’re against, but what we’re for,” Garcia added.

You can watch the CNN interview with Rep. Robert Garcia in the video above.