Latest news with #GilCisneros
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republicans keep winning streak alive at Congressional baseball game
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Republicans and Democrats faced off Wednesday night for the annual Congressional baseball game. Republicans won for the fifth year in a row. It's a friendly competition for a good cause. Organizers say they've raised more than $2.8 million dollars, a new record. The money goes toward charities serving children and families in the Washington, D.C., area. California Democratic Congressman Gil Cisneros says the game sets a good example for the country. 'Whenever we work together, whenever we do things together, it always shows something positive for the country,' said Cisneros. The game also marks eight years since Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise was shot at a Republican baseball practice. This year, he was first at bat. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) says the friendly competition shows Americans things aren't as divided as they seem, even if just for a night. 'There's plenty of things to argue about tomorrow in Washington but tonight we're here for a good cause and it'll be a lot of fun,' said Schmitt. Organizers say they sold more than 30,000 tickets for the game. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Politics
- Forbes
Trump Using LA Protests To 'Distract' From Budget Bill, Tariffs & Russia-Ukraine War: Gil Cisneros
Congressman Gil Cisneros (D-CA) joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the protests in Los Angeles over workplace ICE raids, as well as President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard and Marines against Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes in response. Watch the full interview above.
Al Jazeera
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
‘Blatant political attack': US lawmaker charged over ICE centre standoff
Washington, DC – United States Congresswoman LaMonica McIver has been charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer after a standoff at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in early May. On Tuesday, Democrats denounced the charge as an attempt by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump to silence his political rivals for speaking out against his deportation campaign. In a post on the social media platform X, Democratic Representative Gil Cisneros blasted the administration for having 'gone after judges, prosecutors, and now, Members of Congress' in its attempts to stifle dissent. 'The charges against Rep McIver are a blatant political attack and an attempt to prohibit Members of Congress from conducting oversight,' Cisneros wrote. The charge was announced on Monday evening, with federal prosecutor Alina Habba —Trump's former personal lawyer — accusing McIver of having 'assaulted, impeded, and interfered' with law enforcement. 'The conduct cannot be overlooked,' Habba wrote in a statement. 'It is my constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties.' The criminal charge stemmed from an incident on May 9, when McIver joined two other members of Congress for an oversight tour of Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. The visit devolved into a fracas involving elected officials, protesters and federal law enforcement agents. The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested at the scene for alleged trespassing. In Monday's statement, Habba announced the charge against Baraka has since been dropped 'for the sake of moving forward'. But his arrests likewise spurred outcry over possible political motives. Late on Monday, McIver responded to the charges against her with a statement of her own, saying she and other members of Congress were 'fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities' when they visited the detention centre. McIver accused ICE agents at the scene of creating an 'unnecessary and unsafe confrontation'. She added that the charges against her 'mischaracterise and distort my actions'. 'The charges against me are purely political,' McIver wrote. Top Democrats also remained defiant in the face of the Trump administration's accusations, saying they would continue their oversight duties at immigration facilities like Delaney Hall. 'The criminal charge against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver is extreme, morally bankrupt and lacks any basis in law or fact,' Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives said in a joint statement. They underscored that they have a right as Congress members to show up at federal facilities unannounced for inspections. The charges against McIver, they argued, are a 'blatant attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate Congress and interfere with our ability to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch'. In a separate statement, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said the criminal charge was a 'dangerous precedent' that 'reveals the increasingly authoritarian nature of this administration'. 'Representative McIver has our full support, and we will do everything in our power to help fight this outrageous threat to our constitutional system,' they said. Democrats have denounced the Trump administration's push for 'mass deportation' as violating constitutional and human rights. As part of that push, the Trump White House has sought to expand the use of private detention centres to house the growing number of people arrested for deportation. Mayor Baraka, in particular, has repeatedly protested the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall for opening without the proper permits and approvals. Its operator, The GEO Group, has denied any violations. The facility became operational in early May, under a 15-year agreement made with ICE.
The Guardian
30-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Democrats have never been so angry. Who will step up and lead them?
Democrats are furious. And they want their leaders to get mad, too. 'I wish you'd be angry,' a constituent told representative Gil Cisneros, a Democrat of California, at a recent town hall. At an event in Minnesota featuring a panel of Democratic attorneys general, an activist voiced a similar sentiment: 'Get angry, man,' punctuating the message with a profanity. The anger roiling the party, slow to build, is now a forceful current coursing through the electorate and pulling in Americans terrified that the country is descending into authoritarianism. Democrats – with no leader to guide them and little power to wield in Washington – are scrambling to harness the sudden fury. At rallies, town halls and protests, voters are venting their fury with Donald Trump and his empowerment of Elon Musk's full-frontal assault on federal agencies, stoking what progressive activists believe are the embers of a populist backlash against the president – and the Democratic leaders they believe are not meeting the moment. Tens of thousands of left-leaning voters flocked to 'Fight Oligarchy' rallies hosted by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez across three western states last week. Democratic members of Congress spoke to packed crowds at events in House districts held by Republicans, who have been advised not to hold town hall meetings in this climate. And the Arizona senator Mark Kelly joined the Tesla Takedown movement, offloading his electric car after a public spat with Musk. Despite the rising tide of anger, Democrats still have no clear strategy to confront Trump or the chainsaw-wielding Musk, who said in an interview on Thursday that his mission to slash federal spending by $1tn could be completed within weeks. Their popularity is cratering and they remain divided over policy and messaging. The deep discontent among Democrats has some wondering whether they are on the verge of their own Tea Party-style, grassroots revolt. 'What if we didn't suck?' Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old progressive TikTok star said in a campaign video launching her bid this week for a safely Democratic Illinois House district that is currently represented by the long-serving representative Jan Schakowsky. 'This isn't a referendum on Schakowsky,' Abughazaleh said in an interview. 'We need to try something different and I am sick of waiting around for someone to do something. There is no mythical, perfect candidate that's coming out of the woodwork to save us.' There is near universal agreement that the party needs a post-election reset. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Friday, California governor Gavin Newsom, the Democratic leader of the largest blue state, said his party's brand had become 'toxic'. 'People don't think we make any damn sense,' he said. Recent polling reflects the grim state of affairs. Just 40% of Democrats approved of the way their leaders in Congress were handling the job, compared with 49% who disapproved, according to a Quinnipiac University poll last month. The survey, which marked what the university's polling analyst Tim Malloy called a 'sobering slap-down of historic proportions for the Democrats in Congress', was conducted weeks before the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer provided the votes to pass the Republican-drafted government funding bill that ignited a furious backlash and led to calls for new leadership. A survey released this week by the progressive polling firm Data for Progress showed that 70% of Democratic voters gave the party's response to Trump a 'C' grade or below, with 21% assigning a failing grade. A strong majority of respondents expressed a desire for new leadership in the party, with 69% agreeing that older leaders should retire and pass the torch to the next generation: Democrats with the skill and instinct to compete in a more hostile political – and media – landscape. 'What if we came out strong, metaphorical guns a-blazing?' Abughazaleh said. Anger can be a powerful electoral force, said Steven W Webster, political scientist at Indiana University and the author of American Rage: How Anger Shapes Our Politics. 'An angry voter is a loyal voter,' he said, but there is a risk for Democrats if they fail to match the anger in their base, he said: 'They run the risk of having their voters turn on them.' The progressive group Indivisible is leading a campaign demanding Schumer step aside as leader – though Schumer remains defiant. Leftwing groups are also ramping up efforts to challenge Democratic incumbents in next year's midterm elections. 'The thing that I'm finding, frankly, pretty disconcerting right now is Democrats sticking their heads in the sand and not responding directly to the moment that we're in,' Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible, said on an organizing call this week. Theda Skocpol, a Harvard sociologist and political scientist who studied the Tea Party, said the conservative movement was the wrong blueprint for Democrats. 'What the Tea Party did to the GOP, it cannot be done to the Democrats, and if it were, it would relegate them to four decades of minority status,' she said. Skocpol, who also studied the anti-Trump resistance that emerged in response to his 2016 election, said her research showed that engagement at the state and local level helped save the Affordable Care Act and turn the tide for Democrats in the 2018 congressional midterm elections. That was a better model, she argued, and it could begin with the upcoming special elections in Wisconsin and Florida on Tuesday. An upset victory by the Democrat James Malone for a Pennsylvania state senate seat in a district that had voted overwhelmingly for Trump in November provided a beacon of hope for the party. Vincent Hughes, a Democratic state senator, said Malone's victory was a 'referendum on the chaos Washington Republicans have brought to our state', adding: 'Voters are fed up.' Part of the challenge Democrats face is leading a resistive movement without a clear leader. Asked in an open-ended CNN poll to name the Democratic leader they feel 'best reflects the core values' of the party, 10% of the respondents said Ocasio-Cortez, followed by Kamala Harris at 9% and Sanders at 8%, while 30% did not provide a name. 'No one,' one respondent told the pollster, according to CNN. 'That's the problem.' Far lower on the list – or missing entirely – were the Democrats most often cited as potential presidential contenders in 2028: Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Chris Murphy and Pete Buttigieg. Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark and a prominent anti-Trump Republican pollster who addressed House Democrats at their closed-door retreat in Virginia earlier this month, said she left disillusioned by the state of the opposition's leadership. 'Nobody knows what time it is. Nobody seems to be ready to meet this moment,' she told an audience in Phoenix during a live taping of her podcast The Next Level. Among the few exceptions, the conservative host conceded, were Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez because they were actively mobilizing overflow crowds against the Trump administration's mass firings of federal workers, his attempts to dismantle the Department of Education and the threats to overhaul social security and cut Medicaid and Medicare. If Americans continued to show up and speak out, Longwell predicted, Trump's popularity would eventually fall so low that Republicans would start 'figuring out a way to offload him' and Democrats would 'stop acting like people who are scared of their shadows'. As their agitated base searchers for fighters, the party is still searching for answers. There is widespread agreement on the diagnosis: that the party must rebuild trust with the working class and win back the cohorts of young people, Latinos and Asian voters who defected to Trump in 2024. A post-election analysis by the pollster David Shor found that naturalized citizens swung sharply from Joe Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024, meaning they chose a candidate who promised to close the very same doors they walked through to enter the country. Perhaps most worryingly for the party was their sharp turn toward Trump among young people, especially men. A growing faction of Democrats favors a populist economic message to recapture these voters. On Capitol Hill this week, an ideologically mixed group of House Democrats called on their party to embrace a 'fighting spirit of patriotic economic populism'. 'Democrats need to wake up and stop defending elites and the establishment,' the representative Chris Deluzio, who represents a competitive Pennsylvania district, said in a floor speech. 'This embrace of economic patriotism might sound and look different depending on where in this country and who the messenger is,' he continued. 'But we agree that the era of a spineless Democratic party must end.' The speech matched the party's fighting mood since Trump's re-election. But the party's identity crisis runs deeper, spanning ideology, policy and messaging. According to new data from the Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini, nearly 80% of Democrats want the party to take a more combative approach to the president, including 50% who say they want the party to be 'much more' combative. It also found Democrats were twice as likely to say they wanted the party to move toward the political center – 42% – rather than to the political left – 20%. The path forward, according to Ruffini, is what he calls 'combative centrism' – candidates who take on Trump and his administration but hold moderate positions on key social and economic issues. Matt Bennett, a founder of the center-left thinktank Third Way, agrees strongly that the party needs a rebrand, particularly in its approach to working-class voters. But he isn't convinced that a billionaire-centered critique, championed by leftwing populists like Sanders, is the right approach. 'It isn't clear that a country that just elected a billionaire whose best friend is the richest guy on Earth is demanding that we fight the oligarchy,' he said. 'They're very mad at both Trump and Elon, not because they're wealthy, but because they're vandals that are destroying the American republic.' 'That does not mean in any way that we are taking a backseat in the fight against Trump,' he added. One lesson many Democrats drew from their 2024 defeat was that opposing Trump was not enough. But showing a willingness to fight him now might be enough to start a conversation with the voters who tuned them out in November. 'I think there's a lot of opportunity to step in with some fresh leadership and some fresh ideas, and to be bold and on offense,' said Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat who is running for the chance to unseat the Republican representative Derrick Van Orden in a politically competitive Wisconsin House district. 'I think we play defense a little bit too much, and I think that it's important for us to be a little bit more uninhibited as Democrats.' Rachel Leingang contributed to this report
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘They hate us': Democrats now fear midterms could result in their ouster as voters want candidates to take on Trump
Democratic lawmakers have reportedly grown fearful about the future of their party and the midterm elections as they confront frustrated constituents who are angry at what they perceive as Democrats' lack of action against President Donald Trump and his administration. Across the country, Democrat voters have expressed deep irritation with their leaders from protesting at town halls to leaving angry voicemails with Democrats' offices. Illinois Representative Sean Casten was grilled by constituents during a town hall about standing up to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – who joined Republicans in passing a temporary funding bill. One voter asked Casten if he was 'prepared for violence' because 'nice and civility doesn't work.' After facing questions and repeated disruptions from protestors, Casten told Axios a colleague called him crying. 'They hate us. They hate us,' the colleague told Casten. The aftermath of the 2024 presidential election has left many Democrat voters feeling defeated and angry at their leaders, something that has been bubbling up and could translate into voters revolting against their party in the 2026 midterm elections. That could mean not voting for the party, or voting for other Democrats in primaries that liberals believe will stand up to Trump. Axios reported that Democrats anger could spill over to primaries with one senior House lawmaker saying: 'The people that have been voting ... with Republicans on these messaging bills are people that could get primaried." The midterms will be a critical point for Democrats who are hoping to take control of either the House of Representatives of Senate from Republicans. But, the party appears to be facing an uphill battle. For the first time in more than 10 years, Democrat voters have a net-negative approval rating of their own party, polling from Politico found. A recent NBC News poll found that just 27 percent of registered voters said they view the Democrat favorably – the lowest favorability rating for Democrats since 1990. Another CNN poll similarly found that 29 percent of voters have a positive view of Democrats, the lowest of a CNN poll since 1992. Democrat voters' floodgates of frustrations appeared to have opened after Schumer broke with his party to vote with Republicans in order to keep the government open. Representative Delia Ramirez told Axios her constituents have 'passionately' said they're unhappy with Democratic leadership. "You seem like such an affable, kind, nice man, but I am so angry ... I wish you'd be angry."At a town hall held by Democratic Congressman Gil Cisneros people expressed fears around Social Security, the National Parks system, Elon Musk and more. — More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 20, 2025 'They expect more from me and from Democrats in Congress,' Ramirez said. California Representative Gil Cisneros tried to calm his constituent's feelings at a fiery town hall recently. One woman told Cisneros she is 'so angry' and 'so scared' about the future of Social Security and Medicare under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency threats to scale down the agency, according to ABC7. 'I wish you'd be angry,' the woman told Cisneros.
