The Democratic Party is already lining up to eat its own as it sets the stage to wage slugfest primary to oppose President Donald Trump in 2020.
The targets start at the top, with former Vice President Joe Biden leading the polls and being attacked by liberals for being too moderate and out of touch with voters, The Hill reports.
"I think that people's initial, and main concern is that he is out of step with the primary electorate and is going to have the same problems that [Hillary] Clinton did with motivating the base and being the best candidate to run against Trump," a Democratic strategist told The Hill. "And then that got turbocharged by him jumping out to an early lead, and all of the [news] articles about people being focused on 'electability' and that again is going to be another Clinton campaign redux."
Biden has been leading early polling for the Democratic candidacy because of name recognition and a moderate platform against the tide of left-turning party – something Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., No. 2 in polling, is attempting to capitalize on in reverse. Sanders is close on name recognition and far more in line with the leftist leanings of the modern Democratic Party.
"Joe voted for the war in Iraq; I led the effort against it," Sen. Sanders told ABC's "This Week." "Joe voted for [the North American Free Trade Agreement] and permanent trade relations, trade agreements with China. I led the effort against that. Joe voted for the deregulation of Wall Street, I voted against that.
"I think if you look at Joe's record, and you look at my record, I don't think there's much question about who's more progressive."
The current No. 3 in the RealClearPolitics.com polling, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also targeted Biden on his moderate stance on Wall Street.
"At a time when the biggest financial institutions in this country were trying to put the squeeze on millions of hardworking families, Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies," Warren said last month, per the report.
Still, there are real reasons Biden is the pre-primary favorite for the nomination, making his targeting by progressives far more imperative out of the gate.
"If you look at the makeup of the Democratic Party, [being moderate] doesn't seem like it would hurt Biden at all since most Democratic Party voters are still older, more moderate than very liberal, and come out to vote in greater numbers than the much younger progressives," Democratic strategist Maria Cardona told The Hill.
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