Wasserman Schultz: Like a 'Prune' with 'Some Tinsel,' Rubio Not 'Fresh and New'

Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) insists that her party’s presidential primary will be “competitive,” but not like “the clown car Republican candidates that are developing on the other side.”

Wasserman Schultz mentioned former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley when asked on MSNBC this morning how, possibly, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s entrance into the race sets the stage for competition among Dems.

“Look, I’m not prepared to make predictions about who our nominee is going to be. I think that we are going to have a primary,” she said. “I think there will be more than one candidate for president in this race on our side. And I think that, regardless of who or how many, we are — all of our candidates will present a stark contrast to the Republicans who simply continued to want to focus on more of the trickle-down economics that has failed, that got us — our economy into the worst economic crisis that we’ve faced in the Great Depression. And President Obama and Democrats in Congress helped bring us out through now 61 straight months of job growth in the private sector, and that’s a pretty stark contrast.”

“If you want to reach the middle class, we will elect a democratic president in 2016. And I think regardless of who that nominee is, that’s what voters will choose to do.”

Wasserman Schultz noted that Clinton is polling well, but “polls mean very little right now.”

“What’s going to matter at the end of the day is that the voters in America are going to choose the 45th president of the United States based on who they think has their back,” she said. “It’s very clear that, whether it’s Hillary Clinton or whoever the Democratic nominee is, that voters want to make sure that the candidate for president that they vote for is going to stand up to make sure that if you want to work hard and play by the rules in this country that you’ll have a fair shot to succeed. And you can climb those ladders to the middle class.”

The chairwoman dismissed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who’s announcing his candidacy this evening, as a “flat-Earth society worshiper.”

“And they’re going to try to portray him as some kind of new and fresh face. He is nothing more than the same old, tired Republican policies that he’s embraced,” Wasserman Schultz said. “…So really, I mean if you want to put what is essentially a prune and package some tinsel around it. That does not make you fresh and new.”

“Oh, I mean, look, a guy who says — who represents the state of Florida who lives in South Florida, can see the flooding that occurs on Ocean Drive, when there is a huge amount of rain, to continue to be a climate-change denier, is not fresh and new, he’s more of the same,” she continued. “…Just because he is Hispanic, does not mean that he automatically earns the votes of Hispanic voters across this country.”