Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley (N.Y.) on Friday blamed the Koch Brothers, in part, for Democratic Party election losses at the local, state, and national levels.
When pressed on the issue on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the Democratic lawmaker shifted the discussion toward the Democrats' "lack of plan."
Co-host Joe Scarborough asked Crowley whether the Democrats have done anything since November 2016 to try and reverse their losing streak of the past six to seven years.
"What are you guys doing differently now that you weren't doing last November when you just got absolutely shellacked as a party?" Scarborough asked.
"This has been going on, Joe, prior to that," Crowley said. "This goes back to 2010, 2012 when the Koch Brothers and Republicans invested in state and local legislative races—where they've taken over state capitols around the country. I think we have like 15 Democratic governors today."
Scarborough pushed back and interrupted Crowley to clarify whether he was blaming the Koch Brothers—longtime Republican funders and Democratic boogeymen—for the party's problems.
Crowley then began shifting responsibility, saying he blamed the losses on Democrats' "lack of participation as well" and "lack of a plan" from Democratic leaders over the last decade.
"I know that President Obama is really leading the charge in terms of really focusing on the efforts in state legislative house races so we can get back into the game in state legislatures around the country," Crowley said.
He went on to say that Democrats need to focus on winning gubernatorial races, calling the strategy the "silver bullet" to helping them obtain reapportionment in 2020 and 2022.