CNN Democratic Strategist Admits That ‘Bashing Women Over the Head with Abortion’ Didn’t Work

Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Julie Roginsky admitted that “bashing women over the head with abortion” didn’t work during a panel discussion on Friday morning,

After being asked by anchor Jim Acosta if she was “surprised that Trump gained women voters this time around,” Roginsky said that “In retrospect, of course, there were signs,” but nevertheless said that she was “very surprised for all the reasons that we talked about before the election.”

“Look, ultimately we have to — Democratic Party needs to reckon with the fact that we don’t know how to speak to voters very often. And those voters include women,” she continued. “And bashing women over the head on abortion did not seem to work, especially in states where abortion was on the ballot and they could vote to make it legal that way. We need to talk to women, and men, and meet voters where they’re at and not lecture to them. I’ve said this before, and I’m doubling down on that today.”

Once Roginsky finished, Acosta asked S.E. Cupp if women voted “against their own self-interest in this election?”

“Well, women as well as every demographic group do not like being told that they’re voting against what they believe is their own self-interest because they are voting the way they want to vote. So that’s not a great question, just generally,” replied Cupp, who went on to argue that all issues are women’s issues:

I covered this election differently than I have in past cycles. I did it through the swing states, talking to voters every day, just in the swing states. And I got to tell you, the three issues they all mentioned were economy, crime, and immigration.

And in particular for women, crime was a very big issue. And they don’t like being told, “Crime is down, you’re safe,” when we as women who have navigated this world for years as women, we know when we feel safe and when we don’t. And we do not feel safe in our big cities and our towns.

And the the Democrats barking FBI statistics at us, just like they would bark GDP statistics just to show us how great the economy was when we don’t feel like it’s good. This was not the right messaging. That’s not how women felt, and as important as reproductive rights are for many women, it was not a leading factor in the way that the economy, crime, and immigration were. And Democrats need to realize those are women’s issues, too.

Watch above via CNN.