White House adviser says painting MAGA Republicans as extremists was ‘effective’ strategy

White House senior adviser Anita Dunn on Sunday said painting Republicans who support former President Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement as extremists who threatened democracy was a “very effective strategy” for Democrats in the midterm elections.

Dunn told NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd that political analysts had cast doubt on labeling MAGA Republicans as extremists, but she said it clearly paid off after Democrats performed better than expected on Election Day.

“It was a very effective strategy for kind of raising for the American people the hazards of going down that path with democracy denial,” Dunn said, “with the threats of political violence to achieve political ends, with an extremist program that involves denying women the right to an abortion.”

Democrats retained control of the Senate after winning a key race on Saturday and the party still has a path to victory in the House, although Republicans are closer to winning the 218 seats needed for a majority.

Democratic candidates outperformed expectations, overcoming historical challenges to make the most gains in a midterm election for a party in power in 20 years.

A major campaign issue for Democrats was to preserve democracy after Trump has continued to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen and his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Biden called out MAGA Republicans multiple times during the election cycle, including during a prime-time address.

Biden slammed them as dangerous extremists who posed a threat to the country, using rhetoric which some feared would alienate independents and further entrench conservative voters.

Trump-aligned candidates, including many who backed false claims about the 2020 election, lost key races across the country.

Dunn on Sunday said the “Republican Party has to come up with what they’re actually for.”

“It’s very clear what President Biden and the Democratic Party are for,” she said. “They are for working people, for middle-class people, for policies that change what’s happened over the last 40 years in this country where the wealthy just got wealthier and the people at the top did well, and everybody else lost ground.”

“That’s what he ran on in 2020,” Dunn added of Biden. “That is what he has set out to do. And he’s made some real progress. But he has a lot more to do.”