Latest news with #Longwell
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
For these Trump voters, a rubber-stamp Congress is a key demand
Advertisement And they reserved their purest aversion for Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the solidly conservative former longtime party leader, whom they described alternately as an 'obstructionist' to Trump's agenda, a 'snake in the grass,' and a 'bowl of Jell-O' with no spine. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Their perspectives offered a striking contrast to the reception that many Republican lawmakers have confronted at raucous town halls throughout the country in recent months. The lawmakers have been grilled and booed by constituents at these events for supporting Trump's policies on tariffs, immigration and, most recently, the domestic policy bill that the GOP pushed through the House in May. And they help explain why most Republican lawmakers have put aside any reservations they may have on key issues and backed the president -- because a critical portion of their party's base is still demanding that they do so. Advertisement 'For loyal Trump voters, they're loving what they see as him 'doing something' and don't want congressional Republicans getting in the way of his agenda,' said Sarah Longwell, the anti-Trump Republican strategist who conducted the focus groups. 'And members of Congress have gotten that message loud and clear.' These voters represent only a piece of the electorate that Republicans must court in the run-up to midterm congressional elections in which their governing trifecta is on the line. Since Trump took office, GOP lawmakers have struggled to defend his executive actions and his efforts to dismantle the federal bureaucracy and unilaterally defund government programs, and to explain to their constituents why they are not doing more to challenge him. In Nebraska this past week, Representative Mike Flood faced an angry crowd grilling him on the Medicaid and food assistance cuts included in the domestic policy bill. And he admitted he had been unaware that the measure included a provision to limit the power of federal judges to hold people, including Trump administration officials, in contempt for disobeying court orders. But Longwell's sessions, videos of which were shared with The New York Times, were a reminder that there is still a powerful pull for Republicans to swallow whatever disagreements they may have with Trump and bow to what he wants. Since the beginning of this Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson, whose too-slim majority in the House leaves him little latitude to maneuver, has positioned himself less as the leader of the legislative branch and more as a junior partner to Trump. That stance is exactly what these voters, whom Longwell identified only by their first names and last initials to protect their privacy, said they liked about him. Advertisement Arthur M., a voter from Arizona, described Johnson as 'loyal,' adding, 'I'm not saying they should never have any other ideas of their own, but they certainly shouldn't have someone dissenting if you're trying to put an agenda through -- and that's what the Congress is.' Jeff B., a voter from Georgia, said Johnson always appeared to be 'in over his head.' But he did not see that as a negative. 'He's not the kind of guy like Mitch McConnell, who was pulling all the strings,' he said. 'He's struggling, and I think that's the way it's supposed to be. He looks like he's in over his head, and I think that's the way it's supposed to be.' The voters who participated in the focus groups, which were conducted May 16 and 19, had uniformly negative views of those House Republicans they viewed as 'rabble-rousers,' which they defined as anyone expressing an opinion that was not in sync with the White House. Jane H., a voter from Indiana, criticized her Congress member, Representative Victoria Spartz, an unpredictable lawmaker who often sides with the hard right, for being 'out of line' when she makes noises about opposing Trump's agenda. Gilbert W. from North Carolina held a similar view of Murkowski, who has routinely broken with her party to criticize Trump. 'Murkowski -- this woman's never found anything on the Republican side she really goes for,' he said, calling her a 'troublemaker.' In contrast, Allen K. from Arizona praised his Congress member, Representative Juan Ciscomani, for never making any waves. Advertisement 'Whatever Trump does, he'll say,' he said of Ciscomani, describing that as a positive. As for Senator John Thune, the new majority leader from South Dakota, he earned kudos mostly for not being McConnell. 'He's pressing Trump's agenda, it seems like,' Gilbert W. said. 'What else can you ask for?' Jane H., a three-time Trump voter, said, 'What I want to see is someone who will work hard and effectively to advance a conservative agenda, and to work closely with the White House to advance at this time Donald Trump's agenda. It's what the American people want, so that's what John Thune should be doing.' Many of the participants in the focus groups had only vague impressions of their own representatives, a reminder that to many voters, Congress remains a faceless institution of 535 mostly anonymous lawmakers about whom they don't have particularly strong feelings. That could help explain why most appeared to judge their elected officials almost exclusively according to how deferential they were to Trump, about whom they expressed potent -- and extremely positive -- sentiments. Asked for his opinions on Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Steve C., a voter from Michigan, said, 'I don't have an opinion on anyone specifically.' This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Republican critics hit his flip-flop on weaponizing the IRS
The Trump Administration's pressure campaign against Harvard University and threats to go after the prestigious school's tax-exempt status go directly against the president's previous pledge to 'never allow the IRS to be used as a political weapon,' his critics say. The administration froze $2.2 billion in funding for the university last week after school leaders refused a collection of government demands for top-to-bottom reforms. Further escalating its attacks on Harvard, the administration also requested last week that a top official at the Internal Revenue Service rescind the university's tax exemption, according to CNN. That move did not sit well with Sarah Longwell, a Republican political strategist, critic of President Donald Trump and publisher of the Bulwark, a conservative news website. Under former President Barack Obama, some Republicans believed the IRS was targeting conservative groups, Longwell said. Because of that, there are scores of years-old videos of Republican officials 'passionately arguing that the government targeting the tax-exempt status of groups because of their political beliefs is un-American and illegal,' Longwell wrote on the social media platform X. 'I will never allow the IRS to be used as a political weapon‚" she quoted Trump saying in 2019, accompanied by a video of the president's remark. Republican Accountability, an anti-Trump conservative group, also posted a video compilation of leading national Republicans criticizing attempts to politicize the IRS. 'If the IRS can go after you because of what you think or what you believe or what you do, we'd no longer live in a free country,' Vice President JD Vance said in one resurfaced clip. 'Were this a Republican president, a Republican attorney general and a Republican IRS that were targeting Democrats, I at least would speak out just as vigorously against it,' Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said in another clip, from a 2014 Senate hearing. 'Because if we are going to respect the rule of law, the apparatus of the federal government cannot and should not be used as a partisan tool to bludgeon your enemies.' The video compilation showed similar clips of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, all Republicans. The government has issued a variety of demands to Harvard purported to focus on fighting antisemitism at the school, and threatened up to $9 billion in federal grants to Harvard and its affiliates. The demands include a push for Harvard to review its programs and departments for evidence of antisemitic harassment and adopt reforms to 'improve viewpoint diversity and end ideological capture.' The administration also pushed Harvard to allow audits of staff and student viewpoints, change its disciplinary policies, and report information to the government on student discipline, admissions and foreign investments. Harvard was the second university, after Columbia University in New York City, to receive a detailed list of demands from the Trump administration. However, where Columbia initially accepted some of the government's orders, Harvard has resisted. 'The administration's prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government‚' Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to the school community last week. 'No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.' 'Tax-exempt status, I mean it's a privilege, and it's been abused by a lot more than Harvard,' Trump said last week at the White House, when asked why it was acceptable for his administration to threaten Harvard's tax-exempt status after he criticized politicization of the IRS in the past. Mass Gov. Healey: Trump's funding cuts, attacks on Harvard are 'bad for science' Trump administration plotting additional $1B cut at Harvard amid ongoing battle Suspect shot 4 to 5 times at 'targeted individual' at Harvard Square station, police say Shots fired at Harvard Square MBTA station; shelter-in-place alert sent by university
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GOP Strategist Spots ‘Bad Sign' That Trump Voters Are Already Having Second Thoughts
Buyers' remorse is starting to set in for some of President Donald Trump's voters, longtime Republican strategist Sarah Longwell suggested on Wednesday. Essentially, nothing has changed for those who backed Trump for the 'one very specific reason' that they believed 'things are too expensive,' Longwell told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace. And now, Longwell said, those voters are being increasingly caught up in the chaos of the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency's 'vast' and brutal cuts that are having negative consequences nationwide. 'You can see it in the poll numbers. I can hear it in the focus groups, like it's already starting to turn,' said Longwell, founder of Republican Voters Against Trump group and publisher of the center right-leaning Bulwark website. 'And that is a bad sign for Trump because honeymoons, even for him he was getting a pretty muted honeymoon, but honeymoons still usually last a little bit longer than this,' she added. To hammer the point home, Wallace aired audio of one focus group member who said: There's a lot of babies being tossed out with the bath water, to use an old-fashioned phrase, in this first few weeks. I'm disappointed about this with President Trump because he served before, we're just forfeiting respect internationally daily. If we had a drinking game where everyone took a drink when the word 'reverse course' or 'walking this back,' we'd be drunk in 20 minutes. It's chaos up there. Watch here: Democratic Congressman Makes Jarring Admission About His Own Party Trump's Oval Office 'Infomercial' Has Critics ― And RFK Jr. ― Cringing So Hard JD Vance's 'Absolutely LUDICROUS' Defense Of Trump Has Critics Howling
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GOP Strategist Spots ‘Bad Sign' That Trump Voters Are Already Having Second Thoughts
Buyers' remorse is starting to set in for some of President Donald Trump's voters, longtime Republican strategist Sarah Longwell suggested on Wednesday. Essentially, nothing has changed for those who backed Trump for the 'one very specific reason' that they believed 'things are too expensive,' Longwell told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace. And now, Longwell said, those voters are being increasingly caught up in the chaos of the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency's 'vast' and brutal cuts that are having negative consequences nationwide. 'You can see it in the poll numbers. I can hear it in the focus groups, like it's already starting to turn,' said Longwell, founder of Republican Voters Against Trump group and publisher of the center right-leaning Bulwark website. 'And that is a bad sign for Trump because honeymoons, even for him he was getting a pretty muted honeymoon, but honeymoons still usually last a little bit longer than this,' she added. To hammer the point home, Wallace aired audio of one focus group member who said: There's a lot of babies being tossed out with the bath water, to use an old-fashioned phrase, in this first few weeks. I'm disappointed about this with President Trump because he served before, we're just forfeiting respect internationally daily. If we had a drinking game where everyone took a drink when the word 'reverse course' or 'walking this back,' we'd be drunk in 20 minutes. It's chaos up there. Watch here: Democratic Congressman Makes Jarring Admission About His Own Party Trump's Oval Office 'Infomercial' Has Critics ― And RFK Jr. ― Cringing So Hard JD Vance's 'Absolutely LUDICROUS' Defense Of Trump Has Critics Howling
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Longtime GOP Pollster: Trump Voters Are Getting ‘Buyers' Remorse'
Seasoned Republican pollster and author Sarah Longwell suggested Wednesday that Americans who voted for President Donald Trump are beginning to have 'buyers' remorse,' citing a pool of focus groups she's conducted full of MAGA voters who expressed less-than-positive reviews of the president's first month. 'I think what we're starting to see is the very beginning of buyer's remorse setting in,' Longwell told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Deadline: White House. 'And the voters that I was talking to both before the election and after … They voted for Donald Trump for one very specific reason—they thought things were too expensive, and they still think things are too expensive.' The segment also played a few recordings sent over by frustrated Trump voters who detailed why they've been disappointed with the president's moves so far. One voter said: 'There's a lot of babies being tossed out with the bath water, to use an old-fashioned phrase, in this first few weeks … I'm disappointed about this with President Trump because he served before, we're just forfeiting respect internationally daily.' 'If we had a drinking game where everyone took a drink when the word 'reverse course' or 'walking this back,' we'd be drunk in 20 minutes,' he continued. 'It's chaos up there.' Longwell continued to note that while there have been some positive reactions toward the Department of Government Efficiency, others have begun feeling the adverse effects of Elon Musk's frantic changes. 'People are experiencing negative personal consequences as a result,' Longwell claimed, pointing to how 'vast' Musk's work and reach has been. 'You can see it in the poll numbers. I can hear it in the focus groups, like it's already starting to turn,' Longwell continued on the president's seeming status within members of the Republican Party and even with non-MAGA folk who voted for him because they were 'just mad about the economy.' 'That is a bad sign for Trump because honeymoons, even for him he was getting a pretty muted honeymoon, but honeymoons still usually last a little bit longer than this,' she continued.
