Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said he thought Democrats lacked a “coordinated response” to President Trump’s joint address to Congress last week.
Schiff joined ABC News’s “This Week” on Sunday, where host Jonathan Karl asked him about fellow Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s (Pa.) criticism of the party during the address.
“Well, I think the lack of coordinated response in the State of the Union was a mistake, and frankly it took the focus off of where it should have been, which is on the fact that the president spoke for an hour and 40 minutes and had nothing to say about what he would do to bring down costs for American families that were watching that lengthy address, sitting at the kitchen table, hoping that he would offer something to help them afford a new home or pay their rent, afford health care or child care,” Schiff began.
During Trump’s speech, Democratic lawmakers held up signs that read various statements. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was thrown out of the chamber after exclaiming, and several others walked out throughout the address.
They were largely criticized for disrupting the speech, but Democratic allies couldn’t agree if the party should have done more, or nothing at all.
Democratic leaders sought to keep disruptions to a minimum and, like Schiff argued, have the attention be on Trump’s speech.
The California senator argued that Trump’s address, and his tariff plan, were “incomprehensible.”
“They’re destroying the economy, and they’re making it harder and harder for Americans to afford things. That’s where we need to keep the focus,” Schiff said. “That’s why we lost the last election because we weren’t razor-focused on … the high cost of living and what they’re doing now is just making it so much worse in the administration, and that’s what we needed to emphasize.”
