Two years after former President Barack Obama said his transgender bathroom policy was partly responsible for the Democrats’ loss in 2016, BET founder Bob Johnson says the Democrats are still moving too far left.
Obama accepted some of the blame for Hillary Clinton’s staggering loss to Donald Trump in 2016, saying his transgender bathroom policy may have distracted the public from his other policies.
“They may know less about the work that my administration did on trying to promote collective bargaining or overtime rules,” Obama said in December 2016. “But they know a lot about the controversy around transgender bathrooms because it’s more controversial; it attracts more attention.”
Johnson, who describes himself as a longtime centrist and Democrat, says not much has changed in the Democratic leadership since 2016. He said partisan politics in America has become “very wicked and very mean.”
“The [Democrat] party in my opinion, for me personally, has moved too far to the left,” Johnson, the founder of cable network BET told CNBC‘s Hadley Gamble on Tuesday.
Johnson, who became America’s first Black billionaire after selling BET in 2001, said time is running out for the Democrats in 2020.
“I don’t have a particular candidate (I’m supporting) in the party at this time. I think at the end of the day, if a Democrat is going to beat Trump, then that person, he or she, will have to move to the center and you can’t wait too long to do that.”
Johnson said President Trump’s tax breaks have stimulated the economy and Black unemployment is at the lowest level in decades.
“I think the economy is doing great … African-American unemployment is at its lowest level,” Johnson said.
When asked about Trump’s leadership style, which is considered divisive by the liberal news media, Johnson said Trump has “got his own style” of leadership, though he probably needs to “step back a little bit from some of his showmanship.”
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