Howard Dean says Ellison can't do the DNC job and serve in Congress

Howard Dean, who announced on Thursday a run to head the Democratic Party, knocked another contender for the job, saying Rep. Keith Ellison can't both serve in Congress and chair the Democratic National Committee.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Friday, Dean restated his interest in once again chairing the DNC. “I am very interested in the chairmanship of the DNC,” he said, adding, “Not so much because I think I'm the only person who can fix it, but I think we need a full-time chair.”


Dean praised the Minnesota congressman generally, saying, “Look, I like Keith Ellison a lot. He's a very good guy. There's one problem. You cannot do this job and sit in a political office at the same time. It's not possible.”

He said that Debbie Wasserman Schultz wasn’t the only DNC chair who also held political office, and that it just doesn’t work. “We have to rebuild from what has been a tragedy not only for the Democratic Party, but perhaps for the country,” he said.

Dean recalled that when he took the job in 2005, the Democrats did not control either the House or the Senate, nor the presidency, and that when he left in 2009, they controlled all three.

He also criticized the DNC under Wasserman Schultz’s leadership, saying, “First of all, they never should have taken sides in the race. I would have never permitted that,” and recounted that he “had to be the referee between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in 2008.”

Dean said he has already spoken to Ellison, and plans to speak with Bernie Sanders, who has strongly backed Ellison for the job.