‘Scares me’: Branding expert Donny Deutsch confronts Democratic senator on AOC and Bernie Sanders representing party

Branding expert Donny Deutsch told Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy during a Tuesday podcast that it worries him how Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are such prominent figures in the Democratic Party.

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have undertaken an ongoing “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, speaking to crowds about how to combat “the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power” in the U.S. Deutsch, speaking from his podcast “On Brand with Donny Deutsch,” said the politicians’ prominence gives Republicans the opportunity to portray the Democratic Party as extremely far left, but Murphy downplayed the issue.

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“What scares me — some of the big voices out there: AOC, Bernie Sanders. Even if their message of economic populism is a resonating message, they as messengers — I’m the branding guy that says, ‘Whoa, the party is way, way left.’ That’s what scares me,” Deutsch said. “That’s what says, if I see the — you know, I look at you, a moderate guy with a progressive voice — I look at Bernie, I look at AOC, and this is not here to bash them, but to say, from a branding point of view, it gives the opposite side the chance to say, ‘Oh, the party is so far left. They’re not relevant to your needs, swing voter.’”

Murphy disputed Deutsch’s characterization by saying Sanders draws audiences of all political backgrounds.

“I mean, he’s got, you know, folks that are sort of traditionally hard left, but he, you know, also has always had crossover appeal into some of [President Donald] Trump’s base,” the senator said. “And I think that’s because he has a laser-like focus on the unfairness of the economy.”

“This has always been Bernie’s thing — that he’s going to build a big tent in which you can come inside so long as you agree with him that we have to unrig the economy so that it works for regular people,” he added. “And here’s where I think the Democratic Party does have to reform. I think we’ve got to get back to being that big-tent party. Whether Bernie Sanders is the leader or not, I don’t really know or care.”

Moreover, former Democratic megadonor John Morgan said on NewsNation’s “CUOMO” March 20 that the left-wing politicians’ anti-oligarchy tour will backfire as they each motivate Trump supporters.

“See, AOC and Bernie [galvanize] MAGA because MAGA hates them and the thing MAGA loves the most other than what they love, they love watching them twisting and turning,” Morgan said.

When asked to identify the Democratic leader they believe “best reflects the core values” of the party, 10% of Democrats picked Ocasio-Cortez, while 8% chose Sanders, according to a CNN/SSRS poll published March 16.

Although he did not mention Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez by name, Democratic New York Rep. Ritchie Torres argued during a Thursday podcast that those in his party who believe they should move further to the left are reaching the wrong insights from their November 2024 election loss.

“I find it odd now there’s an argument in order to, you know, reverse the results of the 2024 election, we have to embrace the far left,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

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