‘Democrats have lost their way’

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Doug Jones to Bill Maher: ‘Democrats have lost their way’

By Jeremy Gray | jgray@al.com

3-4 minutes

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Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson laughs with former Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., as she returns from a break in her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2022. (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite / POOL / AFP) (Photo by J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones appeared on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday with advice for fellow Democrats -- it’s time to change your message.

“Democrats have lost their way in the sense that they have not been talking to mainstream America,” Jones said.

“They have lost their way talking to rural America, to folks on Main Street....We’ve got to get back to giving those messages ...’We are working. We are doing things.’”

Jones said Democrats need to convince voters they have better ideas and not in a way that says, “Republicans are bad and Democrats are good. We have to be talking about issues.”

Maher asked if that was the strategy Jones employed when he ran against Roy Moore, who he called “a child molester.”

“Not the strongest candidate Republicans could have ever put out,” Jones replied. However, Jones said, voters were more concerned with which party he belonged to rather than where he stood on issues.

“The messages get lost on the tribalism of Republicans versus Democrats,” Jones said.

See also: Bill Maher on why he actually loves red states, and why democracy is in big trouble

“We are an inclusive party ... and that includes the farmer who is putting food on your table,” Jones said of Democrats.

The U.S. Senator from 2018-2021 recently served as a “sherpa” during the confirmation process of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The episode also touched on Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the effects of disinformation on social media and voters.

“I’m all for the First Amendment, all Democrats are for the First Amendment for goodness sakes,” Jones said. “But Russian bots do not have a First Amendment privilege in this country or on Twitter period.”

“Civics in this country is a relic of the past and we’ve got to get back to that,” Jones said. “That’s why you see different people on the one hand looking at the Jan. 6 riots was simply a group of tourists that were doing OK.”

The truth behind the riots could come out during the investigation by a House committee but people should remember, Jones said, the role of committee is “not to put people in jail, it is not to indict Donald Trump....it is to tell people what happened in a non-partisan fashion.”