The next day after the Nov. 5 election in the United States, I spoke on-air with Voice of America's Roman Mamonov about the Democratic Party's failure to deliver a victory and what's next for them. The translated transcript is below.
The next day after the Nov. 5 election in the United States, I spoke on-air with Voice of America's Roman Mamonov about the Democratic Party's failure to deliver a victory and what's next for them. The translated transcript is below.
Roman Mamonov: “We’ll talk about this with the LCB news wire agency political reporter who covers the U.S. Congress, Andrey Beregovskiy. Andrey, welcome back to the studio.”
Andrey Beregovskiy: “Thank you, Roman.”
Roman Mamonov: “We’ll start with Congress. Everything’s clear with the Senate — will the Republicans keep their majority in the House of Representatives in your opinion?”
Andrey Beregovskiy: “There’s a possibility, and the likelihood is very high. We assumed that the Republicans would have 218 votes, the smallest majority with only one vote. It looks like they’ll keep 219, even 220 seats in the House. There are still uncalled races, you mentioned California and New York, where the Democrats will flip at least one or two seats in each state, and I’ll also point out Arizona, 1st and 6th district of Arizona, where the Democrats may flip one or even two seats. What’s interesting, the moderate Democrats hold their seats, which Republicans wanted to flip: the 2nd district of Maine and Washington’s 3rd district. So, moderate Democrats performed quite well during this election.”
Roman Mamonov: “But nevertheless, we say that the Republicans show fantastic results during this election. And I don’t even mean the whole picture, but some distinct states, where we look — and I don’t understand how, for example, the Democratic candidate could be losing New Jersey by 5 points. I mean, of course, Kamala Harris. We see an incredible electoral swing — is there any understanding why?”
Andrey Beregovskiy: “The Republicans have been aiming at that region since 2022. In New York in 2022 they flipped several districts, including the 17th district of New York, where the Democrats ran the candidate that led them during that race — completely unexpectedly Mike Lawler won that race in the 17th district of New York. So, the Republicans have been aiming there for some time and purposefully. We were surprised that Trump had a rally at the Madison Square Garden, we thought that it was connected to his campaign — but it could’ve been tied not only to his campaign, it could have been tied to the Republicans’ campaign in New York or the Republicans’ campaign in New Jersey. There were also some tight races in New Jersey.”
Roman Mamonov: “But do we say that in general, the Democrats have completely stopped hearing, or, more like, understanding, the interests of their audience and reflect them? Why do we see such an electoral swing? Why men, women, young people… I just can’t believe what I see.”
Andrey Beregovskiy: “I think that these are two oppositely directed processes. On the one hand, they really don’t hear their audience, and on the other hand, they don’t try to lead their audience. The purpose of a politician is not only to hear but also to lead somewhere in the future, especially if you’re liberals. Liberals must lead somewhere into the future — what future did the Democratic Party offer during this election? Unclear.”
Roman Mamonov: “I’ll point out that no Democrat uses the word ‘liberal,’ they don’t call themselves that. In your opinion, everything that we see now, will it kickstart changes in the Democratic Party? Did they end up on the verge of collapse that requires changes?”
Andrey Beregovskiy: “This is absolutely inevitable. First, Democrats need to seek a new leader. We finish the 2024 electoral cycle and we start the 2026 and the 2028 electoral cycles. They will need a presidential nominee. I said that the Barack Obama era has ended, because both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tried to tie themselves to Barack Obama, tried to present themselves as Obama’s third or fourth term. That’s it, that’s over. They need to look for a new direction, they need to unite their party. On the air today you said that the Democrats have started to blame each other, who’s to blame for the lost election. This is a classic Democratic Party — blame one another.”
Roman Mamonov: “And another quick question: we saw that neither Beyoncé, nor Taylor Swift, nor any of this cohort work for the Democrats. But we see an incredible amount of young people for Trump — is it because he went to Rogan and all these specific niche podcasts?”
Andrey Beregovskiy: “Maybe that. Or maybe because the Democrats haven’t offered young people any vision of the future. If you’re 25 years old in the United States, what do the Democrats offer you? A tax credit on children that you won’t have for 10 more years? What do the Democrats offer to a 25-year-old voter that the Republicans can’t offer? Nothing.”
Roman Mamonov: “It may be that diagnosis or verdict that the Democrats will have to cope with and something that they should answer in the near future. Thank you. Andrey Beregovskiy, the political reporter at the LCB.”