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2020 Presidential Election

NYT's Friedman calls for a 'gathering' of Dem Party 'elders' to counter Bernie Sanders' surge

By Sam Dorman Fox News
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Longtime New York Times columnist Tom Friedman is calling on Democratic Party "elders" like former President Obama to bring some maturity to the 2020 primary process after Tuesday's debate.

Friedman took particular aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who he said only represented a portion of the party and couldn't govern effectively or win elections with that type of leadership.

"There's got to be some kind of gathering of the elders of the party -- whether it's [Chuck] Schumer and [Nancy] Pelosi or President Obama, I don't know who, has got to come together," Friedman told CNN on Wednesday.

"These people need some adult leadership here right now. If you watched that debate last night, if you watch the last few debates, it was squabbling children. It was really frightening, it was not uplifting, it was not reassuring."

JAMES CARVILLE: WARREN AND SANDERS DON'T SEEM LIKE THEY'RE TRYING TO WIN AT THIS POINT

Friedman was just the latest person to express serious concern over the direction of the Democratic Party.

After Tuesday's debate, Democratic strategist James Carville argued that Sanders wasn't interested in actually winning the 2020 presidential election.

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"Bernie Sanders says he's going to ban all fracking, so he's banning any chance of doing anything particularly in western and central Pennsylvania. Last time I checked, Florida is a key state, then you say something nice about Castro," he said on MSNBC, referring to Sanders' defense of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

"You're not trying to win the election. If you're not trying to win Pennsylvania, [and] you're not trying to win Florida, then maybe Arizona is the answer," he added. "But why would you do that? I mean, it doesn't make any sense -- you're not going to ban fracking. Castro is dead -- why are you even defending him? He's not trying to win, he's trying to make a point and that's what scares me."