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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Centrist WelcomeFest Was Everything That's Wrong With the Democratic Party
Inside a cavernous, neon-lit ballroom in the bowels of a joyless Washington D.C. hotel, Carly Simon blasts from the speakers in an effort drown out the chants of 'Free, Free Palestine' from protesters who've crashed a conversation with Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) — the gay, Black, self-described Zionist representing one of the most Democratic districts in the country. Liam Kerr, co-founder of the centrist-supporting political action committee Welcome PAC — decked out in a West Virginia Mountaineers jersey with senator-turned-lobbyist Joe Manchin's name emblazoned across his back — bodies out a bespectacled, man-bunned individual trying to film the scuffle. It would have been a particularly crude piece of performance art depicting the Democratic Party in its present incarnation, but unfortunately, it was real. Organizers of WelcomeFest, an event billed as 'the largest public gathering of centrists,' were expecting disruptions when they convened in D.C. on Thursday — you could even say they welcomed them. Earlier that day, as Kerr kicked off the festivities, he drew a contrast between his own apparel and a t-shirt he told the crowd organizers had on hand for any protesters who might show up. The tee featured a depiction of Babydog, the beloved bulldog belonging to Jim Justice, the West Virginia Republican who replaced Manchin in the U.S. Senate this year, and his slogan, 'Delivering Justice for West Virginia.' 'I am wearing a jersey of someone who stepped on the West Virginia campus 50 years ago on a football scholarship, who is the number one-rated 'Wins Above Replacement' candidate,' Kerr told the crowd of his Manchin jersey. (Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, is a sports statistic that measures a certain player's contributions to their team. More on that later.) The Justice t-shirt was meant to send a message to progressive-minded: If you're not with us, you're against us. Or, as Kerr put it even more bluntly, 'The choice is Jim Justice or Joe Manchin.' Manchin's dark money group, Americans Together, was, incidentally, one of the sponsors of the event. Over the course of the afternoon, speakers at WelcomeFest offered their diagnosis for what ails the Democratic Party, which might be summed up as: too much democracy. Too many people making too many demands of their elected representatives. Onstage, speakers used the shorthand 'The Groups' when discussing this phenomenon. Speaker after speaker blamed 'The Groups' for Democrats' failure to win elections and to govern effectively when they did win them. (Names of the specific Groups in question were rarely invoked on stage, but a recent New York Times op-ed by one of the day's speakers, Democratic operative Adam Jentleson, called out the American Civil Liberties Union, the Sunrise Movement, the Working Families Party, and Justice Democrats as some of the culprits responsible, in his view, for browbeating Democratic candidates into adopting unpopular positions in primaries that Republicans could weaponize against them in a general election.) The blogger Matthew Yglesias flogged this thesis most aggressively in his presentation. To illustrate his point that 'Bad Groups create bad incentives for Democrats,' Yglesias pointed to Democrats' after a Maryland man was illegally renditioned to a Central American supermax prison by accident — some Democrats have traveled to El Salvador to seek Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release and return to the U.S. Besides this being the only moral position one can take on the question of whether the government should be allowed to extrajudicially seize individuals, ship them off to a foreign jail, and refuse to bring them back when ordered by the courts, Yglesias appears to be wrong about this being a politically dangerous position for Democrats to stake out: Media coverage of this case, kept alive by Democrats who continued to raise awareness about it, damaged Donald Trump's image, pollster G. Elliott Morris points out. Approval for Trump's immigration agenda nosedived during the height of the furor over Abrego Garcia's wrongful seizure. While speakers at WelcomeFest generally seemed to agree The Groups' influence was to blame for Democrats' failures, no one seemed to offer much in the way of a contrasting vision for what the party's orienting principle ought to be going forward. Abundance, the airport book that some Dems appear determined to adopt as a policy platform, got only brief attention at the WelcomeFest. Instead of a mission or any one overarching vision, there only seemed to be consensus on the fact that Democrats need to start winning again, by whatever means necessary. The political analyst Lakshya Jain urged reorienting party recruitment efforts to focus on candidates with high 'Wins Above Replacement' statistics. The concept will be familiar to anyone who has read Moneyball, Michael Lewis' book about how the Oakland A's used sabermetrics to identify and recruit undervalued players. Jain's model compares a generic match-up in a particular district with the actual results in an effort to evaluate who overperformed or underperformed expectations for their particular race. To illustrate this point, Jain compared the results of progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's race with that of Janelle Stelson, a candidate who ran in Pennsylvania's 10th district. In his model, AOC, who won her race and outperformed Kamala Harris by six points, underperformed a generic race in her district by two points; Stelson, who lost by one point and outran Harris by four points, overperformed a generic Democrat by nine points. Jain's pitch was that, in the current political environment, which he says is D+6, Democrats have a real opportunity to seize legislative majorities if they focus their efforts on recruiting candidates with high WAR scores — the catch is that these candidates might be unpalatable to The Groups and other party faithful. 'Being very blunt, if we run candidates that D.C. finds appealing, we're probably going to lose. There is an inverse correlation between what you guys all find appealing and what the median voter finds appealing,' Jain told the room. He brought up Blue Dog Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), who spoke on a panel with Yglesias and Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Adam Gray (D-Calif.). 'A lot of you may say you find some of Jared Golden's votes to be annoying for a Democrat,' Jain said. 'Well, guess what? The choice isn't between Jared Golden and AOC. The choice is between Jared Golden and Paul LePage. So who would you rather have?' It was an echo of Kerr's opening remarks — 'The choice is Jim Justice or Joe Manchin' — and it's a real question that gets at the heart of Democrats' present predicament. Do Democrats — or Americans writ large — need more candidates in the mold of Joe Manchin, the man single-handedly responsible for torpedoing Democrats' expanded child tax credit, a program that had lifted 2.1 million children out of poverty? Unappealing as the choice is, there's also a high probability that it is a false binary too: Jain claimed in his presentation, 'The base will vote for you anyway… Don't worry about liberal defections.' But if the results of the 2024 election have indicated anything, it's that attitude — the attitude that was also adopted by the Harris campaign — is a losing one: We know that demoralized Democratic-leaning voters who stayed home decided the election. More from Rolling Stone 'We Don't Want Them': Trump Cracks Down on Foreign Nationals Coming to America Sean Penn Criticizes Plan to Remove Harvey Milk's Name From Navy Ship Late-Night Hosts Take Aim at Trump's Feud With Musk: 'Blew Up Faster Than a SpaceX Rocket' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New poll shows who Dems want in 2028 — and it's not Kamala Harris
A new poll reveals that Kamala Harris is not the number one choice for Democrats in the 2028 presidential primary. The poll, released on May 30 by Atlas Intel, found Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and former transportation secretary in the Biden administration, to be the top pick among Democrats who responded to the survey. A total of 31.5% of self-identified Democrats who responded to the poll said they would vote for Buttigieg for president in four years, according to the poll. Other surveys in May from firms such as Echelon Insights and McLaughlin & Associates have found Harris in first place in the hypothetical primary, making Atlas Intel's poll stand out among the rest. Harris is the third most popular pick among Democrats in the poll, falling behind U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Among Democrats, 19.4% said they would vote for Ocasio-Cortez, while 16.6% said they would vote for Harris. While Buttigieg, Ocasio-Cortez and Harris are the top three picks for Democrats, none of them have made explicit statements saying they will run for president. Harris herself has been weighing a run for governor in California or another run for president, according to CBS News. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., was the fourth most popular pick for presidential candidate among Democrats, with 10.4% saying they would vote for him. Behind Booker is California Gov. Gavin Newsom with 7.1%, followed by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at 4.8% and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with 3.7%, according to the poll. A total of 3.6% of the Democrats surveyed replied 'none of the above,' and 1.4% said they would vote for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. The Atlas Intel poll was conducted between May 21 and May 27 with a sample size of 3,469 U.S. adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2%. PBS suing Trump administration over defunding, three days after NPR filed similar case OneHolyoke to host event on community challenges amid federal cutbacks ICE takes two into custody in Amherst in crackdown on 'sanctuary' communities GOP strategist makes stunning prediction for Trump Republicans MIT bans class president who gave pro-Palestine speech from commencement Read the original article on MassLive.
NBC News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
House Democrat to force Trump impeachment vote over objections of party leaders
WASHINGTON — Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., said he will press forward and force a vote Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump, defying his own party leaders who are desperately urging him to stand down. Democratic leaders believe an impeachment vote — destined to fail in the GOP-led House — would be a distraction at a time the party is trying to focus on issues like the cuts to Medicaid that are included in Republicans' sweeping bill for Trump's agenda. They have encouraged Thanedar to skip the House's vote series later Wednesday, a Democratic leadership source said, since Thanedar needs to be physically present to make a motion on his resolution. But Thanedar, who is facing a tough primary challenge from the left, said Wednesday afternoon he was undeterred and will force. 'I intend to show up,' he told reporters. "Everybody has their opinions, but that's what I'm going to do." Thanedar introduced seven articles of impeachment against Trump last month, accusing the president of obstructing justice, abusing executive power and corruption, among other charges. Thanedar has asked for his resolution to be considered 'privileged,' which forces leaders in the Republican-led House to bring the measure to the floor within two legislative days. 'So those who are asking me, is this the right time to do it? I say it's never the wrong time to do the right thing,' Thanedar said at a press conference outside the Capitol Wednesday morning. The House voted twice to impeach Trump during his first term when Democrats controlled the chamber. House Republicans are expected to call up the resolution Wednesday evening and then hold a vote to table or kill the resolution. House Democratic leaders are urging their rank-and-file members to vote to table the resolution. 'I have said before from this podium that this is not the right approach we should be taking,' Rep. Pete Aguilar D-Calif., the chair of the House Democratic caucus, told reporters. 'I will join members of the leadership team and vote to table that motion." Aguilar said Democrats' focus 'is on health care being stripped away from the American people.' 'That is the most urgent and dire thing that we could be talking about this week,' he said. 'Everything else is a distraction.' Even Democrats' most outspoken Trump critics have been dismissive of Thanedar's move. "[R]ight now, I think our central focus is the fact that Republicans are currently working on cutting 13.7 million Americans from health insurance," said progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Epoch Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Trump Says US Receiving New Air Force One From Qatar for Free
President Donald Trump on May 11 said the United States is receiving a plane from Qatar that will be used as the new Air Force One. 'So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a gift, free of charge, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction,' Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. He said that it bothered the Democrats, who said that the United States should pay. 'Anybody can do that!' he said. After ABC News reported that the president was preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the Qatari royal family—to be reconfigured, introduced as the new Air Force One, and used for the rest of Trump's term—Qatari officials 'But the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made,' they added. Related Stories 5/12/2025 5/11/2025 White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said before Trump's post that 'any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws.' Some Democrats raised concerns about the possible gift. 'Accepting a free plane from Qatar isn't just outrageous, it's corruption, plain and simple,' Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) The clause states, 'No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.' 'Corruption in plain sight. This isn't just unethical—it's a bribe,' Trump is visiting the Middle East
The Hill
08-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump signals he may pull nomination of US attorney in DC given GOP opposition
President Trump indicated he may pull the nomination of Ed Martin, his controversial pick for U.S. attorney in D.C., amid faltering Senate GOP support. During an Oval Office press conference, Trump said he was 'disappointed' that Martin did not garner enough GOP backing to advance out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'To me it was disappointing. I'll be honest, I have to be straight. I was disappointed, a lot of people were disappointed, but that's the way it works sometimes. So it works and he wasn't rejected, but we felt it would be very – it would be hard. And we have somebody else that we'll be announcing over the next two days, who's going to be great,' Trump said. Martin's office did not immediately respond to request for comment. The shift in plans comes after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-S.C.), a member of the panel, said Tuesday he would not be backing Martin, effectively sinking his nomination given the tight margins in the Senate. Martin, who has never served as a prosecutor, has been serving in the role on an interim basis, and has already taken a number of remarkable moves in his short tenure. He otherwise is set to continue serving as interim U.S. attorney until May 20. A former 'Stop the Steal' speaker, Martin represented several Jan. 6 defendants in trials, while one of his first moves in his current post was to reassign or dismiss prosecutors on those cases. He also simultaneously represented one client while moving to dismiss charges against him as U.S. attorney, doing the same for all cases in the wake of broad pardons issued by Trump on his first day in office. He also wrote a public letter to Elon Musk threatening to use his prosecutorial platform to go after those who 'even acted simply unethically,' later launching investigations into two Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Martin has sent letters to Georgetown University threatening to investigate the school over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and more recently he sent letters to a D.C.-based medical marijuana dispensary saying it was 'operating in violation of federal law.' It may not be the end of the road for Martin, however, as Trump lavished praise on the attorney. 'I just want to say it is unbelievable, and hopefully we can bring him into, whether it's DOJ or whatever, in some capacity,' Trump added. Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, took to the Senate floor Thursday to bash Martin, noting the attorney's prior praise for a Nazi sympathizer. 'Nearly every day, new disqualifying information surfaces,' he said, also pointing to reporting from ProPublica indicating Martin ghostwrote posts attacking a judge. He noted a speech Martin gave in support of Tim Hale-Cusanelli, a Jan. 6 defendant who has made a number of antisemitic remarks. 'Mr. Martin said, 'Tim Hale is an extraordinary guy. I got to know him really well. I'd say we're friends.' Friends with a Nazi sympathizer. This is who the president believes should be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Ed Martin now claims that despite these five interviews that we know of, he was not aware of Mr. Hale-Cusanelli's anti semitic commentary or pension for donning a Hitler mustache until after he had presented him personally with an award last July,' Durbin said. Martin later apologized in an interview with The Forward. 'I denounce everything about what that guy said, everything about the way he talked and all, as I've now seen it,' Martin told the outlet focused on Jewish issues. 'At the time, I didn't know it.'
