Democratic party’s committee in the District of Columbia Charles E. Wilson speaking to Rudaw on November 8, 2024. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - It is in American interests to end wars in the Middle East, but the United States should still maintain a military presence in the region, the chair of the Democratic party’s committee in the District of Columbia Charles E. Wilson said on Friday.
Donald Trump defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the US presidential election earlier this week. All eyes are on whether he will keep his election campaign promises to end ongoing global conflicts.
Wilson told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan that "it's important to have an American presence there to act as a deterrent for any rogue country who wants to do harm to another and let these countries know, hey America is serious. And if we overstep, we're going to respond and we'll respond swiftly."
In his previous term in office, Trump wanted to pull US troops out of Syria and an ally of his, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, said this week that he may finally follow through on that plan because he does not want American soldiers caught in the middle of a possible conflict between Turkey and Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
This summer, Iraq reached a deal with outgoing US President Joe Biden to end the US-led mission against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq by September next year.
The following is the full interview with Wilson:
How do you evaluate the US election results and what was behind the Democrats’ defeat?
I can sum it up in one word, disappointing. Of course, we all had high hopes that we were going to elect the first woman president in this country, and that just did not happen.
And America spoke very loudly across many states that they didn't like the direction the country was going in. And you can point to a variety of reasons for that, whether it is
they didn't like the candidate, they did not like the policies as far as what was going on in Gaza, what's going on with the economy, inflation, public safety. Or they just really like what Donald Trump had to say. It's very confusing, but there's a lot of things that the Democratic Party is going to have to take an honest assessment of - where we are as a party and try to retool over the next two to four years. But yes, the votes are very clear. We were not successful. We underperformed while Trump overperformed in many ways and spoke to a broader swath of voters.
Were the factors behind the defeat only related to remarks and electoral campaigns or the fact that the Democratic candidate was a woman?
I definitely think that the candidate at the top of the ticket matters. No one can dispute that, yes. But I do think there were a lot of headwinds that the Democratic Party was facing and inflation and people. The economy is doing great, but people were still not feeling it in their pocketbook.
When they go to the grocery store, they still think it's expensive. There's a lot of fear and uncertainty with the wars overseas and how that's going to impact Americans here at home. Public safety is still a very big issue. Immigration was a huge issue.
And these are all, you know, political or local campaign issues that the Democratic Party just did not have an answer for and voters did not feel confident that the Democratic Party was going to be able to find resolution to these political issues.
How will you restore the confidence of Americans?
Yeah, I think we'll have to take a real honest assessment of where we are as a party and understand that we can't be all things to all people. I think the tent has possibly gotten too big where you're trying to appease a lot of fringe groups out there who just can't do it.
At the end of the day, America is either center right or center left.
If you go too far either way, it doesn't work. And policies we have, the Democratic Party has to support policies that by and large, Americans, regardless of party affiliation, we vote, but Americans feel comfortable.
After Trump was elected as the president, Republicans also controlled the Senate. They could also take over the House of Representatives. What challenges lie against your party?
I think the biggest challenge is he's more prepared this time than he was last time. They actually have a plan. And now it's about executing that, helping to find people to execute that plan. And the American public or voters have kind of given him a mandate saying, ‘Hey, we agree with you by and large more than we agree with the Democratic Party. And so what you're proposing is items that we agree with. And so the Democrats are rude.’
We're going to have to figure out where our voice is in this over the next two years. And that's not going to be easy. It's going to take some time because, again, we're going to have to take an honest assessment of who we are and why we lost and what we can do better going forward.
What challenges will the American community face after the elections?
I think it's the challenges that are still here today. It's inflation. Prices have to come down enough for Americans to feel it in their pocketbooks. Crime, public safety has to be improved. The wars overseas have to end.
We have to get the border under control. It is hurting people. Because we don't have the border under control, it's hurting people in cities and suburbs across America.
So the same issues that are still present today are going to be the challenges that the new administration is going to have to tackle going forward. And we'll see if they do a better job. And it's not where we can counsel on opportunity savings.
You know what? We're going to be better as a party and be more responsive and more attentive to Americans.
You talked about wars abroad. What impact will the election results have on the US foreign policy?
Yeah, I mean, I think America spoke very loud and clear, especially young people in this country, that we don't like to see wars and we don't like to see innocent people, men and women, get killed. We don't like to see hostages being taken away from their families. We don't like people, their homes being destroyed, their schools being destroyed. We don't like to see people on our televisions who are living in camps because they can't go home.
And so it's going to be, you know, it's going to be important for the next administration to bring an end to these wars, but also rebuild the lives of folks who lost their homes in both Gaza and Ukraine.
Can Trump keep his word and stop wars, especially wars in the Middle East?
He's going to try. The one thing I can say about Donald Trump is that when he makes a campaign promise, he does his best to deliver. And he makes no apology about delivering on those promises. So we'll see if he'll be able to do it. If he is, he's going to take credit for it. And if he's not, he's going to say that he also failed in bringing some resolution. So we'll see what he says. But I know he's going to try really hard because he wants to look good. Every president wants to look good.
The US has a military presence in the Middle East. Do you think the Republicans will work towards withdrawing troops from this region or do the other way?
Yeah, I don't think that's in the best interest of America. This war is very serious. And if we don't get a handle on it, it can get worse. And it's important to have an American presence there to act as a deterrent for any rogue country who wants to do harm to another and let these countries know, hey America is serious. And if we overstep, we're going to respond and we'll respond swiftly. So I think it's in the best interest of the country for our military to maintain a presence in those areas.
Is it in the interest of the US to keep troops in Iraq and Syria?
You know, I think it's in America's interest to end the war and come to some resolution, whether that's having troops there or not. I think at the end of the day, the goal is to bring resolution, but try to bring peace, relative peace to that area of the world. I think that's America's interest. How we do that, I'm going to leave that up to the policymakers, but again, I think it's in the best interest to bring a resolution sooner rather than later.
Thank you so much for speaking to us.
Thank you for having me.
Donald Trump defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the US presidential election earlier this week. All eyes are on whether he will keep his election campaign promises to end ongoing global conflicts.
Wilson told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan that "it's important to have an American presence there to act as a deterrent for any rogue country who wants to do harm to another and let these countries know, hey America is serious. And if we overstep, we're going to respond and we'll respond swiftly."
In his previous term in office, Trump wanted to pull US troops out of Syria and an ally of his, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, said this week that he may finally follow through on that plan because he does not want American soldiers caught in the middle of a possible conflict between Turkey and Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
This summer, Iraq reached a deal with outgoing US President Joe Biden to end the US-led mission against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq by September next year.
The following is the full interview with Wilson:
How do you evaluate the US election results and what was behind the Democrats’ defeat?
I can sum it up in one word, disappointing. Of course, we all had high hopes that we were going to elect the first woman president in this country, and that just did not happen.
And America spoke very loudly across many states that they didn't like the direction the country was going in. And you can point to a variety of reasons for that, whether it is
they didn't like the candidate, they did not like the policies as far as what was going on in Gaza, what's going on with the economy, inflation, public safety. Or they just really like what Donald Trump had to say. It's very confusing, but there's a lot of things that the Democratic Party is going to have to take an honest assessment of - where we are as a party and try to retool over the next two to four years. But yes, the votes are very clear. We were not successful. We underperformed while Trump overperformed in many ways and spoke to a broader swath of voters.
Were the factors behind the defeat only related to remarks and electoral campaigns or the fact that the Democratic candidate was a woman?
I definitely think that the candidate at the top of the ticket matters. No one can dispute that, yes. But I do think there were a lot of headwinds that the Democratic Party was facing and inflation and people. The economy is doing great, but people were still not feeling it in their pocketbook.
When they go to the grocery store, they still think it's expensive. There's a lot of fear and uncertainty with the wars overseas and how that's going to impact Americans here at home. Public safety is still a very big issue. Immigration was a huge issue.
And these are all, you know, political or local campaign issues that the Democratic Party just did not have an answer for and voters did not feel confident that the Democratic Party was going to be able to find resolution to these political issues.
How will you restore the confidence of Americans?
Yeah, I think we'll have to take a real honest assessment of where we are as a party and understand that we can't be all things to all people. I think the tent has possibly gotten too big where you're trying to appease a lot of fringe groups out there who just can't do it.
At the end of the day, America is either center right or center left.
If you go too far either way, it doesn't work. And policies we have, the Democratic Party has to support policies that by and large, Americans, regardless of party affiliation, we vote, but Americans feel comfortable.
After Trump was elected as the president, Republicans also controlled the Senate. They could also take over the House of Representatives. What challenges lie against your party?
I think the biggest challenge is he's more prepared this time than he was last time. They actually have a plan. And now it's about executing that, helping to find people to execute that plan. And the American public or voters have kind of given him a mandate saying, ‘Hey, we agree with you by and large more than we agree with the Democratic Party. And so what you're proposing is items that we agree with. And so the Democrats are rude.’
We're going to have to figure out where our voice is in this over the next two years. And that's not going to be easy. It's going to take some time because, again, we're going to have to take an honest assessment of who we are and why we lost and what we can do better going forward.
What challenges will the American community face after the elections?
I think it's the challenges that are still here today. It's inflation. Prices have to come down enough for Americans to feel it in their pocketbooks. Crime, public safety has to be improved. The wars overseas have to end.
We have to get the border under control. It is hurting people. Because we don't have the border under control, it's hurting people in cities and suburbs across America.
So the same issues that are still present today are going to be the challenges that the new administration is going to have to tackle going forward. And we'll see if they do a better job. And it's not where we can counsel on opportunity savings.
You know what? We're going to be better as a party and be more responsive and more attentive to Americans.
You talked about wars abroad. What impact will the election results have on the US foreign policy?
Yeah, I mean, I think America spoke very loud and clear, especially young people in this country, that we don't like to see wars and we don't like to see innocent people, men and women, get killed. We don't like to see hostages being taken away from their families. We don't like people, their homes being destroyed, their schools being destroyed. We don't like to see people on our televisions who are living in camps because they can't go home.
And so it's going to be, you know, it's going to be important for the next administration to bring an end to these wars, but also rebuild the lives of folks who lost their homes in both Gaza and Ukraine.
Can Trump keep his word and stop wars, especially wars in the Middle East?
He's going to try. The one thing I can say about Donald Trump is that when he makes a campaign promise, he does his best to deliver. And he makes no apology about delivering on those promises. So we'll see if he'll be able to do it. If he is, he's going to take credit for it. And if he's not, he's going to say that he also failed in bringing some resolution. So we'll see what he says. But I know he's going to try really hard because he wants to look good. Every president wants to look good.
The US has a military presence in the Middle East. Do you think the Republicans will work towards withdrawing troops from this region or do the other way?
Yeah, I don't think that's in the best interest of America. This war is very serious. And if we don't get a handle on it, it can get worse. And it's important to have an American presence there to act as a deterrent for any rogue country who wants to do harm to another and let these countries know, hey America is serious. And if we overstep, we're going to respond and we'll respond swiftly. So I think it's in the best interest of the country for our military to maintain a presence in those areas.
Is it in the interest of the US to keep troops in Iraq and Syria?
You know, I think it's in America's interest to end the war and come to some resolution, whether that's having troops there or not. I think at the end of the day, the goal is to bring resolution, but try to bring peace, relative peace to that area of the world. I think that's America's interest. How we do that, I'm going to leave that up to the policymakers, but again, I think it's in the best interest to bring a resolution sooner rather than later.
Thank you so much for speaking to us.
Thank you for having me.
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