Bernie Sanders supporter Rosario Dawson says Obama should have tweeted more
NEW YORK — Actress Rosario Dawson, a Bernie Sanders supporter, said Friday that some Democrats "lost faith" in President Barack Obama shortly after he took office, leading to the losses of Democratic elected officials.
"They all organized and they thought that they had their guy, their one person. But within two months of him becoming president, people lost faith," Dawson said at a Harlem town hall hosted by Sanders' campaign.
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Dawson — a New York native who has been stumping for Sanders ahead of the New York's April 19 primary — said Obama could have staved off losses of Democratic elected officials in midterm years if he had used Twitter more — acknowledging that the social media platform was pretty new when he entered the White House.
"To his due credit — Twitter had only just had its 10-year anniversary — I don't think he really fully appreciated the organization that was possible that could continue after getting the seat," Dawson said.
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Dawson also said Obama can't blame all of the goals he didn't accomplish on obstructionism.
"To say that was all obstructionism is complete fallacy," Dawson said, adding, "He didn't continue with the momentum that got him there."
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Some in the crowd who came to learn about Sanders were turned off by Dawson's comment.
"I didn't agree with that," said Claire Harris, 72, who lives in the Bronx and is leaning toward supporting Hillary Clinton. "I think that people's expectations were extremely high. That, 'Oh, we've got a black man in the presidency now, everything is going to be so wonderful.' Anybody with any intelligence knew that was not going to be the case. I think that a lot of those people went in with high, unrealistic expectations and were the ones who thought he dropped the ball."
Eileen Thomas, a Bronx resident who is undecided but leans toward Clinton, agreed.
"We don't all think alike," Thomas said of Dawson's comments. "I don't believe that the obstructionism is a fallacy."
In a series of tweets after the event, Dawson defended her comments, saying that her "whole point about Twitter was that we're only truly seeing now how people can continue to be engaged/mobilized. "
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Topics Bernie Sanders Elections Politics
Emily Cahn is a political reporter at Mashable. Prior to Mashable, Cahn spent nearly four years at Roll Call, where she covered House and Senate races and congressional shenanigans. She has also been a copy editor at The Washington Post, and interned at The Hill, the Houston Chronicle and CBS News when she was a student at The George Washington University. Aside from being a political junkie, Cahn loves dogs and experimenting with cooking. Follow her on Twitter @CahnEmily, where she posts pictures of her family's two misbehaved poodles.
