Dem senator: The party should ‘spend more time listening’ to voters who switched from Obama to Trump

Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said Thursday during an interview on CNN that the Democratic Party should “spend more time” listening to voters who supported President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then voted for President-elect Donald Trump in 2016.

Host Jake Tapper noted that Vice President Joe Biden recently said that the Democratic Party hasn’t respected the concerns of working-class Americans.

“These are good people, man! These aren’t racists, these aren’t sexists,” Biden said.

Tapper asked Coons for his thoughts on Biden’s remarks. He said the vice president “has a real point here.”

“There's millions of Americans who voted for Donald Trump not because they're racists not because they're so-called ‘deplorables,’ but because they wanted change,” Coons said.

“They're frustrated,” he added. “They feel like they haven't gotten the benefit out of the significant increase in productivity and wealth in this country in recent years. And they see the economy and this country moving past them, and they wonder who is going to stand up and fight for them."