Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.) said Tuesday that the abnormal number of planned responses to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address reflects the fact that the Democratic Party does not have "one single unified leader."
CNN anchor John Berman asked Blumenauer, who is boycotting Trump's speech, if the Democratic Party is unified since there are five different response speeches planned from liberals. Only two of the planned responses are officially on behalf of the Democratic Party.
"When you have that many people giving a response, including you see Bernie Sanders there, you see Maxine Waters among others there, is this a unified message?" Berman asked. "Do you feel like the Democrats are sending a unified message when they have so many different heads delivering it?"
"I think it is important to recognize that there are a variety of approaches that can and should be taken. Speaking, for example, to people in the Hispanic community, in their own language, I think is valuable," Blumenauer said. "We need to start bringing the country together and part of that is reflecting the variety of points of view that are ignored by this administration."
Berman reminded Blumenauer that only one of the five speeches is in Spanish and sanctioned by the Democratic Party.
"You're getting different responses from the political spectrum there, we're talking about Joe Kennedy and Bernie Sanders and Maxine Waters and Donna Edwards–they're all speaking English," Berman said.
Blumenauer blamed the lack of a unified message on the fact that Democrats are not in control of either chamber of Congress or the White House, and therefore do not have a unifying leader.
"Part of that is a reflection of the fact that there is not one single unified leader for a party that's out of power," Blumenauer said. "Part of that is a reflection of the notion that there are a variety of perspectives that we're in the process of working with and advancing."