On Monday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI) argued that regular people “just want help.” And don’t care if a politician is “a Republican, a Democrat, socialist, Independent.”
Host Chris Cuomo said, “Jill, I don’t think socialism is the bad word that it used to be. I don’t want to defend the word. I understand how, in a debate, it’s not easy. But I think desperation makes people a little less picky about the terms. When you’re looking for a hand and you’re drowning, you don’t really care what the person looks like who’s giving you the hand out.”
Tokuda cut in to respond, “You don’t care if they’re a Republican, a Democrat, socialist, Independent. I think that’s my point here is we get caught up in partisan politics and labels here in Congress, but everyday people, they just want help. And if you think about Tennessee and how many people rely on Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act to get basic health insurance, how many people need supplemental support to put food on their table through EBT/SNAP, all of these things cut in the trillions of dollars. Right now, they want somebody who understands what they need.”
Earlier in the interview, Tokuda stated that people don’t want the minority party to just oppose but want there to be bipartisanship to improve things and don’t want the majority party to just defer to the president.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett


