Despite their victories in Tuesday's off-year elections, Jon Stewart, the host of "The Daily Show" on Mondays, still had a pessimistic look at the Democratic Party.
"Democrats are still a mess," Stewart said on his podcast "The Weekly Show."
"I truly believe they're a mess because there is, what this shows to me is, again, there is this underlying potential energy within the United States of America that is much larger than I think any of us could have imagined," Stewart added.
"And channeling that energy directionally will be the challenge for whoever wants to harness it," Stewart continued. "I still don't believe they're doing that."
In Virginia and New Jersey, Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Rep. Mikie Sherrill were elected governor by larger than expected margins while Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, was elected mayor of New York City.
Stewart said he wondered how Democrats would "squander" and "piss away" its recent victories, including the passage of Proposition 50 in California, allowing for the redrawing of congressional maps.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes, a guest on the podcast, said Democrats were helped by President Donald Trump's unpopularity and the fact that the party out of the White House tends to do better in off-year elections.
"Those first two layers Democrats don't make," Hayes said.
"The third layer is candidate recruitment, messaging, campaigns," Hayes continued.
"That's the place you're talking about how they're going to screw it up or how are they going to build on it, that's the place where they can control stuff, and I think they did a lot that was right," Hayes said.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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