Harold Ford Jr.: ‘Out of Bounds’ for Mainstream Media to Attack Haley Stevens
TRANSCRIPT:
FORD JR.: "I don’t like David Axelrod and others piling on her and her mental health. I think that is so out of bounds. You don’t know this young lady, at least I don’t, I don’t think you do. I don’t mean to to single out David, but anybody talking about her, even Anderson Cooper and all of you all, this young lady made a principled decision about a grievance she had with Mr. El-Sayed. They -- I don’t know if you all were in the room when they had these debates or conversations, maybe you were, and if you were, maybe you have a perspective that I don’t. But I know this: Democrats, if we’re asking Republicans in Mississippi and South Carolina and Kansas and Nebraska to flip, in Ohio and Alaska to flip and vote for our candidate, how is it that we’re going to tell a Democrat that she can’t reconsider and look at her race and vote on what she believes are her principles? Now, I’m not saying I agree with her, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let sit here and watch someone criticize this young woman for standing on her principle. Now, could she have done it a little differently? Without question. But if you’re going to criticize her, you ought to criticize El-Sayed as well, because he was the winner by less than a percent and did not reach out to reconcile with her like he should have. And if something doesn’t go right -- he’s lucky, he’s fortunate he has a big lead. If he loses this race, it won’t be because of her. It’ll be because those in that camp didn’t reach out, much like -- like Ronald Reagan reached out to H.W Bush and made him his VP after he called his economic plan voodoo economics, Barack Obama reached out to Hillary Clinton, made her his secretary of state after the very heated campaign they had, and even Donald Trump reaching out to J.D Vance and Marco Rubio, getting beyond differences. So shame on both of them and shame on those who are criticizing and attacking this young lady’s health openly and in a real kind of subdued way as you try to be -- as you try to support El-Sayed. Support El-Sayed, but don’t attack this young lady."
