Milwaukee Bucks head coach and Donald Trump critic Doc Rivers has urged the Democrats to take a page out of the Republicans’ book after their bruising election defeat last year.
Rivers, who has staunchly opposed Trump throughout both of his terms in office, has taken aim at the party and claimed it needs to be fully united on major issues in order to take back the White House in 2028.
And despite his well-publicized disdain for the president, the NBA figure admits Republicans are showing them how it’s done by singing from the same hymn sheet.
‘Well, the first thing we have to point towards is getting out of our comfort zone and thinking if we keep doing the same thing we are going to get different results,’ Rivers told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on her podcast, via Fox News. ‘That doesn’t happen, there needs to be change from the Democratic side.
‘I don’t know what that change is, but I know the norm has not worked. The norm worked on the popular vote, but there are states that haven’t voted on the Democratic side in 50 years.
‘We are a party of being [inclusive], everybody is included, right? But I remember Cory Booker, we are at a function, and I ask him why can’t the Democrats all agree on something, because the Republicans do that well. You have to look at some of the things they do well. One of the things they do is they fall in line. They don’t care.
Bucks head coach and fierce Donald Trump critic Doc Rivers has criticized the Democrats
The NBA champion has staunchly opposed Trump throughout both of his terms in office
But he says Democrats need to be as united as Republicans after Kamala Harris’ heavy defeat
‘If you listen to some of the things these guys said about Trump and then when you hear them speak now, all they do is praise, they are falling in line.
‘But he said something interesting. He said we have so many groups on our side, we don’t just have the White male. We have everybody, and to get everybody to agree on one thing is very difficult, but we’re going to have to start doing that if we want change.’
After becoming the first Republican candidate to win the popular vote for 20 years, Trump also swept up all seven key battleground states and won the Electoral College on his way to a resounding election victory over Kamala Harris back in November.
Rivers added that the Democrats need to move away from the ‘Trump won because’ debate, saying: ‘I think we need to take the ‘because’ out, and I am serious. Trump won and start there, not ‘because.’ Trump won and what do we have to do differently?
‘You have to take ownership of things. We do it in sports all the time. Yeah, I come in after a game we lost ‘because.’ But then I say we lost, but we have to do these things differently if we want to win. We can’t just say we lost because ‘they just made a lot of shots.’ Then we have to force them to miss more shots, we have to do something different.
‘It is so strange we are blaming the people who voted for Trump for why he won. It makes no sense to me. It’s backwards.’
Rivers urged the party to accept Trump’s election win last year despite being a vocal critic
Rivers has tirelessly spoken out against Trump over the years, calling one of his rallies at Madison Square Garden before last year’s election ‘atrocious’ and previously accusing him of offering ’empty promises’.
Yet following his win over Harris in November, the NBA Championship-winning coach urged Democrats to accept the result of the election.
‘Donald Trump is our president, and we’re going to have to support him. We want him to do the best job for the country at the end of the day,’ Rivers told reporters after a practice with the Bucks.
‘Do I like some of the things that he does? No. But now he’s getting a second chance to be a better president than he was the first time, and I hope he is. I’m cheering for him. I really am.’
