Leading Democrat: Benghazi is the GOP's new Obamacare
The GOP-led House is forming a select committee on the Benghazi tragedy because 'continuing to focus obsessively on repealing the Affordable Care Act has lost its luster,' Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the DNC, said this week.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz speaks to reporters in Washington Wednesday, May 7.
Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor
Washington
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida has chaired the Democratic National Committee since April 2011. She was the guest at the May 7 Monitor Breakfast.
Recent bad poll numbers for her party:
“I don’t discount the mood.... I just think likely this far out ... it is not necessarily a really accurate reflection of what the outcome ... especially in a midterm, will look like.”
The tea party’s impact on GOP congressional primaries:
“The tea party has won the civil war that has been raging inside the Republican Party. In races like the North Carolina [Republican senatorial] primary [May 6], [winner] Thom Tillis is no longer ... an establishment candidate. He has been dramatically pulled to the right.”
If Hillary Rodham Clinton does not run for president, how long it could take for a woman to be elected:
“If she doesn’t run, I think we are within just a couple of cycles for a woman to be elected president.”
House GOP leaders forming a select committee on Americans' deaths in Benghazi, Libya:
“It is nothing more than a political ploy, because continuing to focus obsessively on repealing the Affordable Care Act has lost its luster.”
On Hispanic voters and immigration reform:
“It is not the most important issue, but you can’t be wrong as a candidate on that issue.... It is what drives a Hispanic voter away from [Republicans] and towards our party.”