At long last, she’s back.
Hours before President Obama’s second-to-last State of the Union address, Debbie Wasserman Schultz made her first TV appearance since the Democrats lost their majority in the Senate and slipped further into the minority in the House.
The Democratic National Committee chairwoman had gone 75 days since her last television interview on Nov. 4. She last made appearances on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” with Ari Melber, a show that has since been revamped, and Bloomberg’s “With All Due Respect” with Mark Halperin, John Heilemann and Al Hunt on election day.
Wasserman Schultz appeared on “The Reid Report” with Joy Reid on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the Democrats’ plans going forward in the aftermath of Obama’s address.
Over that same time period, Reince Priebus, Wasserman Schultz’s counterpart at the Republican National Committee, has made 15 total appearances, with six coming the day after the Republicans’ massive gains in both chambers of Congress. Overall, the GOP gained a whopping nine seats in the Senate and upped their majority in the House from 234 to 247 seats. The party also won governorships in deep blue states such as Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois, President Obama’s home state.
The RNC chairman was recently re-elected to a third term last week in San Diego.
Wasserman Schultz’s TV absence has only fed into the narrative that she is out of favor with the White House, congressional Democrats and Democratic influentials.
In September, Politico reported that Democrats across the board had “lost confidence” in Wasserman Schultz’s leadership of the party, and that the White House had nearly replaced her following President Obama’s re-election in 2012.
The story also reported that she and Obama rarely speak, with many of their interactions coming at the end of photo lines at fundraisers and events.
Wasserman Schultz drew criticism during the 2014 campaign for saying that two GOP governors, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Florida’s Rick Scott, were giving women “the back of [their] hand[s]” with their policies.
At the time, Mary Burke’s campaign, who went on to lose to Walker, distanced herself from Wasserman Schultz’s comments, saying it’s “not the type of language” Burke would have used and that the disagreements between the two candidates “should be pointed out respectfully.” (RELATED: Scott Walker’s Democratic Challenger Distances Herself From Debbie Wasserman Schultz ‘Backhand’ Comments)
The Daily Caller has reached out to the DNC for comment and will update the story accordingly upon response.