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McAuliffe Can't Name a Leader of the Democratic Party

July 5, 2017

MSNBC host Katy Tur pressed Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) on Wednesday on who the leader of the Democratic Party is, but he could not provide her with a straightforward answer.

Tur praised McAuliffe as a "savvy guy"  and said he was "plugged in" when it comes to Democratic politics, prompting her to ask him who the leader of the Democratic Party is.

"I think there are many leaders of the Democratic Party," McAuliffe said.

"Give me a name, governor. Give me a name," Tur interjected.

McAuliffe said that he was not going to give any names, but he said that Democratic governors are important leaders in the party.

"I'll say the governors who are leading their states, creating jobs, building infrastructure, building an education system that works," McAuliffe said. "We have to balance our budgets, unlike Washington. They print money and they still can't balance a budget. We create jobs. We build infrastructure. We do education. Governors need to lead the way."

Tur told McAuliffe that she had been asking prominent Democrats the same question for the last six to eight months and none of them could provide her with a single name.

"I don't think there is one person today," McAuliffe said. "I run the state of Virginia today. That's what I got elected to do and 66 percent of the state think we're headed in the right direction. People are happy in Virginia, but what people on the national level—people got to worry about what they got elected to."

McAuliffe joins a long line of Democratic lawmakers who have not been able to name the leader of the Democratic Party, instead attempting to deflect the question.