After the fiasco of the Iowa caucuses, Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Tom Perez has faced increased pressure to resign due to alleged failures in leadership. Despite this pressure, Perez doesn’t appear to be planning to step down any time soon, Newsweek reports.
During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, host Jake Tapper noted criticism of Perez’s leadership and asked if he has considered resigning.
“Absolutely not,” Perez responded.
“Jake, look at the last three years. My job when I came in was to rebuild our infrastructure, to win elections. And when you do that, sometimes you’ve got to make tough decisions.”
Perez pointed to his superdelegate reform and claimed that the Democratic Party has been “winning.”
According to Perez, the current stretch of the primary is the most “unsettling” and compared it to 1991, when there was no definite Democratic contender to take on then-President George H.W. Bush.
“We’re in a similar position now in that I don’t know who the nominee is going to be. We’re barely out of the starting gate, and the angst is elevated because we have the most dangerous president in American history.”
The 58-year-old politician added that he believes the party is “better positioned” to provide the eventual nominee with a path to success than any time in the past.
According to CNN , the Iowa Democratic Party is reviewing “reports of irregularities” from 95 percent of the precincts. Speaking to Tapper, Perez claims that there will “absolutely” be a post-election cycle discussion about whether Iowa will remain the first in the party’s election process.
Both Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders have declared victory in the Iowa caucuses amid the controversial results. In addition, the campaigns of Buttigieg, Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren have submitted reported inconsistencies between their campaign counts and the official results to the Iowa Democratic Party.
Perez has faced criticism from all sides for his leadership. Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge, who chairs the House Administration Committee’s subpanel on elections, recently called for him to resign and said his response to the Iowa situation was an example of a “lack of leadership.” Also speaking on the Iowa failure, Donald Trump ally and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon slammed the Democratic Party and said they “screwed” Sanders.
Progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski went a step further and said he believed that the Iowa Democratic Party, DNC, and CNN coordinated to time the release of the results for Buttigieg’s appearance on his CNN town hall last week.
