Ron Klain: Message Voters Sent In 2021 Elections Was Democrats "Need To Do More"

Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain said the message voters were sending in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections was Democrats "need to do more." In an interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday, Klain said the Biden administration "inherited a mess" from former President Donald Trump and he respects that voters haven't "seen enough progress yet" to "feel good about things."

"So, I think what voters were saying on Tuesday was, you know what, not enough yet, and we need to do more," Klain said. "And that's what we're doing, again, starting next Monday, signing the infrastructure bill, working with the House to pass the Build Back Better plan, which will help bring down inflation, bring down the cost of living, bring down people's expenses."

"We are not at mission accomplished by any stretch of the imagination. We have a lot more work to do. That's what we're doing. That's what we're about. And I respect the fact that voters haven't seen enough progress yet from Washington to feel good about things," he said.

NICOLLE WALLACE, MSNBC HOST: Before you were in charge of sort of making sure that all the levers of the federal government ran and having that job 24/7, you were a very astute political observer on these programs and many others here.

And I wonder what your theory of the case is, what your analysis is of what happened last Tuesday for Democrats?

KLAIN: Well, look, Nicolle, I understand that voters are frustrated.

We inherited a mess from Donald Trump. We inherited 4,000 people a day dying from COVID. We inherited only 50,000 jobs being created a month, giant supply chain problems, all these problems.

I'm proud of the progress we have made in these 10 months -- these 10 months. But I totally respect the view of the voters that we haven't made enough progress yet, that we have enough -- haven't gotten enough done yet.

COVID is down by 75 percent from when we came here, but it's not down all the way. We have made progress on creating jobs, but we have to deal with inflation and supply chain problems.

So, I think what voters were saying on Tuesday was, you know what, not enough yet, and we need to do more. And that's what we're doing, again, starting next Monday, signing the infrastructure bill, working with the House to pass the Build Back Better plan, which will help bring down inflation, bring down the cost of living, bring down people's expenses.

We are not at mission accomplished by any stretch of the imagination. We have a lot more work to do. That's what we're doing. That's what we're about. And I respect the fact that voters haven't seen enough progress yet from Washington to feel good about things.

WALLACE: So, your political theory of the case is still that it is deliverables, not -- I mean, do -- what do you feel about Youngkin's ability to sort of harness a lot of the Biden voters around these really visceral issues around education and Critical Race Theory?

How do you respond to that?

KLAIN: Well, look, I think it's important to learn lessons from Tuesday, but not to overlearn lessons from Tuesday also, Nicolle.

No president in his first year in office has won the election in Virginia, the past eight presidents in a row. Up the road in New Jersey, Phil Murphy became the first Democrat in 44 years to be reelected governor of New Jersey. In 2009, when I was here with President Obama, we lost the mayoral election in New York. We won it this time.

So, I think there were a mix of results on Tuesday. I think, overall, the message, frankly, not just to my party, but to both parties from voters, were: We're frustrated that these problems aren't fixed. You need to work together. You need to deliver results.

That's what we're doing. That's what we're going to continue to do. That's what we're standing for. And I think, if we do that, I think our political standing will improve.