Karl Rove: 2020 Democratic hopefuls engaged in 'two-front civil war'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A "two-front civil war" inside the Democratic Party was exposed at a California convention over the weekend, according to Karl Rove.
Rove pointed to the slate of Democratic presidential hopefuls who criticized former Vice President Joe Biden as evidence of the first front, on an appearance Wednesday on "The Daily Briefing."
The Fox News contributor said Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as well as South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg critiqued Biden during their speeches to the California Democratic convention.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"As you all know, there is a debate among presidential candidates who have spoken to you here in this room and those who have chosen for whatever reason not to be in this room, about the best way forward," Sanders said Saturday, without referencing the former Delaware senator by name.
Responding to the remark, Rove said: "We now have a two-front civil war inside the Democratic Party. It started last weekend at the Democratic convention in California where out comes Sanders, out comes Warren and out comes Buttigieg - all of whom take direct shots at Joe Biden."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Last weekend, the dam broke and the attacks started to come against Biden. There will be more of them before late June and there'll be lots of them at the debate."
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He claimed the other front in the intraparty dispute was exposed by lower-polling candidates attempting to stake their claim to the ideological center of the party.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rove pointed to polls showing more than a dozen candidates garnering one percent or less of the vote, labeling those presidential hopefuls "asterisks."
"Two asterisks... attacked the left of the Democratic Party in order to say 'I'm a centrist, traditional Democrat and I'm not one of these lunatics on the left," Rove said, referring to former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Rep. John Delaney, D-Md.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hickenlooper declared "socialism is not the answer" to defeating President Trump, which was met with jeers from the San Francisco crowd.
"If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals socialism is not the answer," he said.
Delaney was also booed when he cast criticism on Medicare for All proposals. The former lawmaker called the idea "not good policy."