Rising Democratic star Wes Moore says party 'just gave up' on certain parts of USA in 2024 campaign
Former DNC chair Jaime Harrison spoke to Moore on his podcast "At Our Table" and asked the Democratic governor if there was anything former Vice President Kamala Harris or the campaign should have done differently.
Moore replied, "I don't know…. It's always challenging if such a large percentage of the country, rightly or wrongly, feel the country is going in the wrong direction. It's just difficult to be the vice president, to come into that. I don't know what she could have done differently, or whatever happened. The thing I think we have to remember to do though, is, I've been deeply disappointed where it feels like there are certain areas and communities that we almost seemingly just gave up on."
He added, "We just stopped competing. We stopped making the case. We came up with this philosophy where, listen, it all comes down to three states," Moore said.
Harrison agreed and added, "We cede ground."
"And it's like, do you know who hears this thing is only going to come down to three states? The other 47. Like, 'we don't even matter, man.' When we hear, 'We need to make sure we go after the working voter in Pennsylvania,' and that's the key, do you know who hears that? Everybody you're not talking about. And I just think we ceded a lot of ground," Moore said.
Moore argued that a lot of key Democratic voters felt taken for granted in 2024.
"And then we get upset, and then we're like, what happened with this group? What happened with that group? And they're saying like, 'Yo, what happened to the party?' I think there needs to be a real level setting about who is our base, man. And who are we fighting for? This is not a game for people. This is not game theory. This is not checkers. They're real life. These are real lives," Moore continued.
Moore spoke to Fox News' Bret Baier earlier this month and said he was not considering running for president in 2028.
"And the thing is, I think that anybody who's talking about 2028 is not taking 2025 very seriously," he added.
Harrison recently spoke to Gov. Tim Walz, former Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in 2024, about the Democratic Party.
Walz wondered why the party comes off as being anti-success during their conversation.
"We, as Democrats, we want people to pay their fair share, but why are we against people being successful like that? We can't be. Why are we against? We should talk about businesses. Not all businesses exploit their workers, and we get ourselves stuck in that. And I think we lose them," Walz said.
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The Hill
26 minutes ago
- The Hill
Senate leaving Russia sanctions power fully in Trump's hands
Republican senators are getting ready to leave Washington without advancing a major sanctions bill against Russia, giving President Trump sole discretion over whether to follow through on his threats against Russian President Vladimir Putin if he refuses to halt his war against Ukraine. Trump has given an Aug. 8 deadline for Putin to stop fighting or risk tariffs on countries that import Russian oil. As a preview, he announced 25 percent tariffs on India, a major importer of Russian energy. That's far below the 500 percent secondary tariff power Congress laid out in draft legislation. While Senate Ukraine hawks wanted to see their sanctions bill pass before the monthlong break, they ultimately left the decision entirely in Trump's hands, at least for the summer. 'I think he's going to be very careful about what he does,' Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said when asked by The Hill if Trump can be trusted to impose costs on Putin. 'But I think he is clearly disappointed in Putin and I think he is now coming around to recognizing that many of us were right.' Democrats have expressed skepticism Trump will punish Putin, even as the president has shown increasing frustration with the Russian leader's refusal to accept a ceasefire. Trump said Friday he ordered nuclear submarines to the region in response to threats of nuclear weapons use from Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president, current deputy chair of the security council and frequent online provocateur. 'Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,' Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social. Trump told reporters Thursday that his special envoy for peace missions, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Russia following a visit to Israel on Friday. Trump described Russia's ongoing attacks against Ukraine as 'disgusting.' 'We have about eight days. … We're going to put sanctions,' he said. Even as Trump has shortened the deadline for Russia to get serious about peace talks, the president is hedging on the impact U.S. financial penalties will have on Putin's country. 'I don't know that sanctions bother him. You know? They know about sanctions. I know better than anybody about sanctions, and tariffs and everything else. I don't know if that has any effect. But we're going to do it.' While the U.S. has steadily ramped up sanctions on Russia throughout the war, the Senate bill would have marked a major economic escalation, seeking to isolate Moscow from trading partners that have kept its wartime economy afloat. 'Maintaining pressure on Russia economically, and going after its oil revenues in particular, remain crucial to containing and limiting Russia's current and future military and foreign policy options,' experts with the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in a report late last month. Steep tariffs on Russia's trading partners would also risk shocks to the global energy market and further strain on U.S. relations with major economies such as India, China and Brazil. Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said deciding which sanctions are imposed — if Russia passes Trump's deadline — 'are a work in progress,' speaking with The Hill on Friday. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), coauthor of the Russia sanctions bill with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said he would view it as a win if Trump imposed even a fifth of what the Senate was proposing. 'We propose in our bill 500 percent. If it's 250 percent, I could live with it. Even if it's 100 percent, possibly. But you ought to impose bone-crushing sanctions that will stop them from fueling Russia's war machine,' Blumenthal said. The Connecticut senator said even as he holds out hope for Trump to give Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) the green light to bring the sanctions bill to the floor, the bill has already moved U.S. policy. 'It has given credibility and momentum to the idea of sanctions so that now, even President Trump, who was seemingly Putin's best buddy, is giving him deadlines to stop the war or face sanctions,' he said. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pointed to Trump's 25 percent tariffs on India as further evidence of this impact. Indian state oil refiners have already moved to pause imports of Russian oil, with the tariff set to go into effect Aug. 7. 'Clearly, India was paying attention to that. I think it's positive progress that the president is looking at ways in which he can put more pressure on Russia,' she said. Graham said Trump has 'adopted the theory of the case' — going after countries that purchase Russian oil and don't help Ukraine. 'He can do it through executive action, or with the bill,' he said. 'I think the bill, as you say, gives him leverage, and we're in good discussions, so stay tuned.' But some Republican senators pointed to a missed opportunity in adjourning before a vote on the Graham-Blumenthal bill. 'I don't think there are enough sanctions we can place on Russia. I think we should keep hammering them and make sure Ukraine's armed,' said Sen. Pete Ricketts (Neb.), the No. 2 Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rounds told The Hill he believed the time is now to put the sanctions bill on the floor. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, said he wanted a Senate vote on the sanctions package so the House could be ready to take it up when they come back in September. 'I think having that tool in your tool chest, ready to go, would be a good thing and keep the pressure on Russia,' he said. 'I think it gives [Trump] more leverage. You can always hold it ready to go, send it over to the House if needed and then to the president's desk. I think that's not a bad strategy.' Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), also a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed. 'I think that's why it's important for us to have this teed up and ready — it gives [Trump] an option, and the more options he has the better,' he said. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told The Hill on Wednesday that Thune was 'absolutely aware' of his desire to vote on the Russia sanctions bill before the August recess. 'I certainly think it would be an excellent thing to do.' Thune's office told The Hill on Friday it had no scheduling announcements related to the Graham-Blumenthal bill.
The Hill
26 minutes ago
- The Hill
Senate deal on nominees elusive amid Democratic anger at Trump
President Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) are making slow progress toward a deal to clear some of the Senate's backlog of executive branch nominees to allow weary senators to leave Washington for the four-week August recess. Walking off the darkened Senate floor at 10 pm Friday, Thune said negotiators 'floated' proposals 'back and forth all day' but added that the Democratic demands 'are probably not going to be something at this point we can meet.' 'No deal yet,' he said. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and will vote at 10 a.m. to limit debate on Andrew Puzder's nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Democrats are under heavy pressure to oppose Trump in any way they can, including stymying his nominees, and their anger soared again on Friday after the president fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after the agency released a weaker-than-expected jobs report. Trump accused McEntarfer, a Biden appointee, of manipulating the jobs data for 'political purposes' but Schumer said the president was only 'shooting the messenger.' Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the Democrats chief deputy whip, said called the firing 'absolutely insane' while Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) called it 'Soviet sh–.' Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he's willing to stick around steamy Washington for however many days it takes to grind through votes on Trump's nominees, showing little appetite for a deal to advance a bloc of Trump picks through unanimous consent or a voice vote. 'I know there's a lot of things being negotiated so I'm not going to comment on that,' he said when asked if he could support advancing a package of Trump nominees. 'I'm okay with sticking around to do work. It's unfortunate that we have a Republican Party right now that's off the rails and doing Donald Trump's bidding,' he said. Booker said Trump's decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because of a disappointing jobs report was 'very authoritarian, very 1984.' Senators are now expected to spend their weekend voting on Trump's nominees as Democrats have refused to allow any of them — even those tapped to fill subordinate positions at federal departments and agencies — to be confirmed by unanimous consent or voice votes. Senators on both sides of the aisle are eager to get home for the month-long break, having spent more time in Washington than usual since the start of the year. As of this week, members of the Senate have cast more votes during the first seven months of the year than the chamber had previously taken over 12 months in 32 of the past 36 years. But they will have to wait to return to their home states as leaders continue to wrestle over a deal on a nominations package and as Democrats are hearing demands from their party's base to drag out the confirmations of Trump's nominees for as long as possible. Democratic senators said they had little sense of whether Schumer was making any progress with Trump on a deal. 'Could be more votes tonight or could be more votes tomorrow but I don't really know,' Sen. Tim Kaine (R-Va.) said shortly after 8 pm. Some senators were told to 'keep their phones on' Friday night in case they were summoned back to for a late-night flurry of votes. Republicans ranged from pessimistic to optimistic when asked about the prosect of a deal on a package of nominees to spare them from having to return to the Capitol for a Saturday session. 'At this point, I think they're quite a ways apart,' Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told The Hill upon emerging from a conference luncheon earlier in the day. 'We'll do our best to try to work through as many [nominations] as we can and kind of move from there,' Rounds said. 'We don't have a deal. We're going to continue to try to work on something, but we don't have a deal yet.' Sen. Tom Tillis (R-N.C.) told The Hill after 8 p.m. Friday that it appeared the White House and Schumer's team had made progress since lunchtime. The talks reached new stage on Friday as Schumer began negotiating directly with the White House on the contours of a package. Thune told reporters that he has put White House officials 'into conversation directly' with Schumer's team. 'That is how this is ultimately going to get resolved,' he said. The Republican leader said that 'a number of people' from the White House are talking with Schumer, who is under heavy pressure from his Democratic base to use every tool at his disposal to thwart Trump's agenda. Thune said a deal would be 'up to the discussions between the White House and Schumer and the Democrats.' He and other Republicans assert that Trump is being treated unfairly on the nominations front, noting that none of his choices have been confirmed via unanimous consent or a voice vote — breaking with past precedent. The Democratic tactics have forced Republicans to churn through time-consuming procedural votes and final confirmation votes on every single Trump nominee Democrats only allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to come directly to the floor for a final vote on the same day Trump took the oath of office. Rubio was confirmed by a vote of 99 to 0. 'This isn't normal. This is petty partisan politics at its worst,' Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said on the floor earlier on Friday. 'Republicans are not backing down. We will continue to confirm President Trump's nominees. The easy way if we can. The hard way if we must.' Senate Republicans weekly policy luncheon on Tuesday was filled with discussions about changing the Senate's rules for confirming lower-level nominees — either by eliminating the need for procedural votes before the final confirmation votes, collapsing the mandatory debate time, or allowing nominees to move in groups. They would need to establish new rules by a simple-majority vote, a move that's considered so destructive to bipartisanship that it's referred to the 'nuclear option.' Under regular order, it would take 67 votes to change the Senate's rules. Senate Republicans are also talking about putting the Senate into an extended recess so that Trump could fill scores of open positions through recess appointments. But that would require mustering 50 Senate Republican votes, something that's not assured given that several Republican senators, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tillis are reluctant to give up their constitutional role of providing 'advice and consent' on nominees. Entering into a multi-week recess would require passing an adjournment resolution through both the Senate and House, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) hasn't given any indication he plans to call House members back to Washington before September. Trump has called on the Senate to stay in session throughout August in order to approve his nominees, but the vast majority of senators are ready for a break. The Senate has been in session for 12 of the past 14 weeks and had its July Fourth recess chopped in half because of marathon negotiations over Trump's One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, which passed after senators slogged through a long series of amendment votes that went overnight and into the next day. While Senate leaders remain deadlocked over a nominations deal, they achieved a major bipartisan accomplishment Friday evening when they passed a package of appropriations bills to fund military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, and the legislative branch. The Senate voted 87 to 9 to pass the military construction, veterans affairs and agriculture appropriations 'mini-bus' and 81 to 15 to attach the legislative branch appropriations bill to the package.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Epstein files controversy consuming Capitol Hill has fueled less fire at first lawmaker town halls of summer recess
The Jeffrey Epstein files saga at times all but ground Capitol Hill to a halt last month — driving a wedge between Republicans in the House as Democrats went on offense to press President Donald Trump's Justice Department to release more investigative material. But since returning to their districts for summer recess, lawmakers aren't hearing much about Epstein at public town hall meetings they've hosted so far. The debate that's dominated Washington in recent weeks didn't come up at all in some town halls Republican and Democratic House members have held — including a raucous event Thursday hosted by Wisconsin GOP Rep. Bryan Steil and two more mild-mannered affairs held by Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman. During others, it's been the topic of just one or two questions. In Wisconsin on Thursday, Rep. Mark Pocan — a Democrat who hosted a town hall in Prairie du Chien, in neighboring Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden's district — brought up Epstein himself, as part of a response to a question about whether Trump might declare martial law and cancel elections. 'It's a step too far to say you're going to release something and then say, 'No, there's nothing there to look at,'' he said. Only one questioner raised the topic of Epstein — and she did so to call it a distraction. Pocan kept his comments focused largely on the Republican tax and cuts spending bill that Trump signed into law on July Fourth — repeatedly warning that cuts to Medicaid could gut Wisconsin's public health insurance programs and force the state to spend tax dollars filling holes left by the federal government. The Democratic congressman said afterward that's why he mostly avoided talking about Epstein. 'I keep it to economics. I'm an economic, progressive populist. I think that's how most people make decisions when they go to elections. That's how Donald Trump won the election. That's why Donald Trump's doing poor in the polls,' he said. The woman who'd brought up Epstein, Krista Brown, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mother from Viroqua, said she has bigger concerns than Epstein — such as whether steep cuts in staffing at the Department of Education will delay action on a Title IX complaint she'd submitted on behalf of her children, or whether National Weather Service offices will be staffed. 'It has more to do with the things that people need as a foundation than it does about arguing over things that the administration wants us to spend our oxygen on. I'm just not interested in that,' Brown said. 'When you live rural, you care about who's going to plow your goddamn roads — when it's going to get plowed, if the buses can get through, how cold it is, if the weather's going to be reported,' she said. 'That's what matters. And the rest is just going to float away, because pretty soon it's going to get so hard in real life that there's not even going to be time to talk about that.' The relative lack of focus on Epstein at town halls reflects the broader priorities of Americans. A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that the economy and immigration-related concerns are the issues Americans consider most important. The poll also found increased Democratic attention to government spending, concerns about separation of powers and the rule of law, and Trump himself. The amount of information the federal government has released on the Epstein case was an issue that didn't rise to prominence, with just one respondent mentioning it as the most important problem. Still, even if Epstein isn't Americans' top priority, half of respondents said they are dissatisfied with the amount of information released about the Epstein case after the Justice Department released a memo saying there is no evidence the convicted sex offender kept a so-called client list or was murdered. That includes 56% of Democrats, 52% of independents and 40% of Republicans. Democrats, in search of an advantage against Trump and administration officials who pledged prior to taking office to release Epstein-related files, have sought to force the issue. In the Senate this week, ahead of its own recess, Democrats are using an arcane procedural tool to try to force the Justice Department to release all of the files related to Epstein, including audio, video and any other relevant documents. Republican leadership, meanwhile, is eager to stay away from the topic of Epstein. House Speaker Mike Johnson cut legislative business short and sent members home early last week to avoid being forced to hold votes on releasing Epstein-related files. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP's campaign arm, encouraged House Republicans in a memo to use the August recess to focus on selling Trump's agenda. 'With the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law just a few weeks ago, this is a critical opportunity to continue to define how this legislation will help every voter and push back on Democrat fearmongering,' the NRCC memo said. Some House Republicans who have held town halls have been asked about the Epstein files. Utah GOP Rep. Mike Kennedy compared the unreleased Epstein files to 'a festering oil-infected wound with pus underneath' in response to a question about whether he would vote in favor of releasing the documents during a virtual town hall last week. Kennedy pledged to push for 'full transparency' in the matter and that he would 'vote immediately to get all that released,' permitted that the identities of victims are concealed. As Republican Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina fielded questions at a telephone town hall last week, one caller shared his 'outrage' over the Epstein files – asking why the House adjourned 'when this hasn't been dealt with.' 'If there's a group of pedophiles out there who are just getting away with it, this is an outrage, and I don't care who they are. I don't care if they're the president of the United States,' the caller said. Timmons responded that 'there is evil in this world, and we have to protect the innocent, so we need to get to the bottom of it.' 'The president and the attorney general are doing the work necessary to release all of the information,' he said. 'The Republican Congress should not be attacking the president,' the GOP lawmaker said. 'The president has earned our trust, has earned the right for us to defer to him on issues at the executive branch.' But other issues have dominated town halls so far this summer — including the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill,' border security and deportations and federal funding cuts. At a Hageman town hall earlier this week, Jane Sanderson, 75, of Worland, who voted for the congresswoman, asked her why the Department of Government Efficiency's spending cuts hadn't put a dent in the United States' national debt. Timmons, the South Carolina congressman, was asked about health care, tariffs and aviation safety. Trump's golf habits came up as often as Epstein. At the same time Pocan held court in Prairie du Chien, Steil, a three-hour drive away in Elkhorn, was accused of doing Trump's bidding too frequently. 'President Trump seems to run Southeast Wisconsin through you,' one audience member told him. Steil faced criticism over the Trump administration's treatment of undocumented immigrants. He was shouted down as he defended Trump's implementation of tariffs on imports from a host of trading partners. And the town hall ended amid shouting after he began to answer a question about starvation in Gaza — an issue that is splintering the right, as Trump pushes Israel to address the humanitarian crisis as its military actions there continue. 'To me, the easy answer to address this crisis is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. That ends the war tomorrow,' Steil said, in a comment that was met with a mix of cheers and shouts of disagreement. 'Israel was unfairly, unjustly attacked, their civilians were killed and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.' CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi, Sarah Davis, Jenna Monnin and Betul Tuncer contributed to this report.
