Hey, White Men! Running For President Isn't The ONLY Way To Fight For Democracy!

By Aliza Worthington — May 17, 2019

Nicolle Wallace's Deadline White House panel poked a lot of fun at all the tall white dudes running for president at the moment. When Wallace, though, played a clip of Stacey Abrams telling Hallie Jackson that she was not ruling out a run for the Democratic presidential nomination, Wallace said if anyone else joined the race, she would want it to be Abrams. "She's an all-star, and and what she's talking about seems to me something all the Democrats should be talking about."

Then, of course, Rick Stengel had to cut her down and say, "Gee, I don't know why she didn't run for Senate..." MAYBE BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T WANT TO RUN FOR SENATE, RICK. *cough* Sorry. The group then had a lively discussion about how depressing it would be for ANY Democrat to be in the Senate under McTurtle, but Wallace reminded them if enough won, McTurtle wouldn't be in charge anymore. Then, though, Alexi McCammond turned the narrative around.

McCAMMOND: Right. Hopefully some will drop out and start running for Senate. I think Chuck Schumer would be very happy if that were to happen, right? They could pull a Marco Rubio, drop out of the running for president and then ultimately run for Senate. The other thing about Stacey Abrams that I think is fascinating, is like, and this goes to this point about running for Senate or doing something else, where are all the politically ambitious white men, who are so concerned about the future of democracy, that they're like, "Hey, why don't I fight against voter suppression or gerrymandering?" Not, "Oh, I'm so privileged I deserve to be president of the United States, and that will fix all of our problems." If you're actually concerned and you're a politically ambitious white man, maybe DON'T run for president if there are 23 others running and do something like Stacey Abrams is doing instead.

WALLACE: *whispering* Because it always takes a woman.

THANK YOU. Maybe, white guys, just take a seat and be followers this time around. Let the real leaders move to the front of the line.

Explore more

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.