Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump

Summary

Podcast Summary: Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump

Podcast: The NPR Politics Podcast
Host/Authors: Sarah McCammon, Barbara Sprent, Domenico Montanaro
Episode: Dems Face Pressure To Fight Trump
Release Date: February 19, 2025

---

Introduction

In the February 19, 2025 episode of The NPR Politics Podcast, hosts Sarah McCammon, Barbara Sprent, and Domenico Montanaro delve into the pressing challenges facing the Democratic Party as they navigate their new minority status following the previous year's elections. The discussion centers on the Democrats' perceived inaction against President Trump's policies, the internal and external pressures mounting on party leaders, and the strategic adjustments necessary for the upcoming political landscape.

---

Democrats in the Minority

The episode opens with an analysis of the Democratic Party’s struggle to assert influence within a Republican-controlled government. Sarah McCammon highlights that Democrats now find themselves in the minority after the last fall's elections, with Republicans holding the House, the Senate, and the presidency.

Hakeem Jeffries’ Concern:
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York articulates the party’s predicament:

Hakeem Jeffries (00:46-01:05): "What leverage we actually have. What leverage do we have? Republicans have repeatedly lectured America. They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It's their government."

This statement underscores the limited avenues Democrats perceive for exerting influence under the current political hierarchy.

---

Voter Dissatisfaction and Party Challenges

Barbara Sprent provides a comprehensive overview of the disconnect between Democratic leaders and their grassroots supporters. She explains that many Democratic voters are frustrated with what they see as the party’s insufficient response to Trump’s policies.

Barbara Sprent (01:23-02:22): "Elections do have consequences. And the American public voted for a Republican trifecta in government. They control the House, the Senate and the White House. ... a huge disconnect because their job is very limited."

This separation between voter expectations and party capabilities is a significant hurdle for Democrats, as they grapple with maintaining support despite constrained legislative power.

---

Strategic Messaging and Communication

The conversation shifts to internal debates within the Democratic Party regarding messaging strategies. While some members advocate for educating the public about their limitations, others push for a more assertive communication approach.

Becca Balint on Public Awareness:
Progressive Caucus member Becca Balint emphasizes the need for greater public understanding of the party’s constraints:

Becca Balint (03:11-03:25): "It's clear from talking to my constituents and people who interact with my office, it hasn't really totally sunk in that Republicans are in charge of the House, the Senate, and the White House."

Barbara Sprent adds that Democrats are establishing task forces to refine their messaging, particularly concerning legal challenges to Trump’s policies.

---

Procedural Limitations and Legislative Hurdles

Domenico Montanaro discusses the procedural challenges Democrats face in the minority, noting that the Republican majority, although narrow, poses significant obstacles to legislative action.

Domenico Montanaro (03:53-05:43): "Life in the minority stinks. ... there's not a lot that you can do, especially procedurally."

He highlights that while the Senate’s filibuster requires 60 votes to pass legislation, Republicans can often bypass Democratic opposition on issues like tax cuts by tying them to the budget, needing only a simple majority.

Montanaro also points out that past procedural changes, such as eliminating the filibuster for Cabinet appointees during Obama’s administration, have further limited Democratic leverage.

---

The Role of Courts and Executive Actions

The discussion moves to the judiciary’s potential role in curbing Executive actions by Trump, especially given the conservative majority in the Supreme Court.

Domenico Montanaro (06:23-07:10): "This is really going to land in the courts. ... it's going to be decided at the ballot box."

Montanaro emphasizes that many President Trump’s actions, from federal workforce management to budgetary decisions, will likely face legal challenges, with courts serving as the battleground for these disputes.

---

Messaging Around Administration Actions

Barbara Sprent and Domenico Montanaro explore the complexities of Democratic messaging in the context of Trump’s administration and the involvement of figures like Elon Musk.

Barbara Sprent (05:43-06:23): "Their Democrats navigating that space in their messaging is going to be really interesting to watch. ... people voted for Trump's policies."

The Democrats are attempting to frame Trump’s actions as detrimental to American norms and federal governance, balancing this narrative against recent influences from figures like Musk, whom they attempt to contrast with traditional Republican policies.

---

Leadership and Procedural Strategy

The panel discusses the Democratic Party’s leadership dynamics, contrasting current leaders with past figures like Harry Reid who were known for their procedural savvy.

Domenico Montanaro (10:03-10:45): "When you look back on somebody like Harry Reid ... there isn't a Harry Reid anymore, really."

This absence of a strong procedural leader hampers Democrats’ ability to effectively counteract Republican strategies, leaving the party to focus more on messaging rather than legislative maneuvers.

---

Electoral Prospects and Structural Challenges

Looking ahead to the 2026 elections, the hosts examine the structural challenges Democrats face, such as gerrymandering and voter turnout issues.

Domenico Montanaro (11:52-12:18): "Republicans are unlikely to lose the Senate because of the majority that they have now. ... the House and it's only a three seat majority."

Barbara Sprent adds that while Democrats have opportunities to regain the House, particularly in tightly contested districts, systemic issues like gerrymandering may limit their prospects.

---

Conclusion and Future Outlook

The episode concludes with a reflection on the long road ahead for Democrats, emphasizing the need for strategic messaging and potential shifts in leadership to effectively respond to Trump’s administration.

Barbara Sprent (13:02-13:39): "It is going to take time for Democrats to sort of solidify a message. ... it's a long road ahead for Democrats."

The hosts agree that the upcoming months will be critical in shaping the Democratic Party's ability to navigate their minority status and prepare for future elections.

---

Key Takeaways

• Minority Challenges: Democrats are grappling with limited legislative power after recent elections resulting in a Republican trifecta.
• Voter Disconnect: There is a growing disconnect between Democratic leaders and their grassroots supporters, who demand more robust opposition to Trump’s policies.
• Strategic Messaging: The party is debating between focusing on educating the public about their limitations and adopting a more aggressive messaging strategy.
• Procedural Limitations: With a conservative-controlled Supreme Court and procedural hurdles in both legislative chambers, Democrats have restricted avenues to counteract Republican agendas.
• Leadership Dynamics: The absence of a strong procedural leader within the Democratic Party limits their ability to effectively challenge Republican strategies.
• Electoral Prospects: Despite structural challenges like gerrymandering, Democrats see potential opportunities to regain the House in the 2026 midterms, contingent on effective messaging and voter engagement.

---

This episode of The NPR Politics Podcast provides an in-depth analysis of the Democratic Party's current struggles and the strategic considerations necessary to navigate a political landscape dominated by Republican control.

Transcript

[Carvana Ad]

This message comes from Carvana. Sell your car the convenient way, Enter your license plate or vin, answer a few questions and get a real offer in seconds. Go to Carvana.com today.

[Caleb]

Hi, this is Caleb in Tucker, Georgia, and I'm currently in the shed working on a crib for my wife and I's first baby.

[Sarah McCammon]

This podcast was recorded at 1:06pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, February 19, 2025.

[Caleb]

Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but I'll still be sawing, chiseling and sanding away. Okay, here's the show.

[Sarah McCammon]

I love that. That's so sweet.

[Barbara Sprent]

Good for you, man.

[Sarah McCammon]

Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Sarah McCammon. I cover politics.

[Barbara Sprent]

I'm Barbara Sprent. I cover Congress.

[Domenico Montanaro]

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

[Sarah McCammon]

Today on the show, Democrats find themselves in the minority after last fall's elections, and their constituents aren't happy about what they see as the party's last lack of action in response to policies they disagree with from President Trump. The Democrats leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, put it this way recently I'm trying to figure out.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

What leverage we actually have. What leverage do we have? Republicans have repeatedly lectured America. They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It's their government.

[Sarah McCammon]

Barbara, you've been reporting on this. How is that attitude going down with many Democratic voters?

[Barbara Sprent]

I mean, it may not be going over well, but it is the reality that Democrats face. Elections do have consequences. And the American public voted for a Republican trifecta in government. They control the House, the Senate and the White House. And that stark political reality is, I think, sort of like dawning on many grassroots supporters of Democrats sort of for the first time. And they're navigating this sort of next chapter as Democrats have lost a lever of power. And there certainly is tension here. I mean, Democrats say that their phones are ringing off the hook with people calling their offices, why can't you do xyz? There was a RAL recently in response to the furlough of a lot of employees of usaid. A lot of Democratic lawmakers were there sort of talking how terrible this is. And they were interrupted by chants of the people in the crowd saying, like, what are you gonna do about it? Do your job. And the reality is there's a huge disconnect because their job is very limited. There's very few things that they can do to thwart the will of the majority.

[Sarah McCammon]

So certainly Democrats are up against these limitations you just described. But there are some Democrats, even some of Jeffries colleagues, who would like to see a different tone here. I mean, what are they saying that they are doing?

[Barbara Sprent]

There's definitely, like, debate about the messaging strategy going forward. And the tape that we heard of Leader Jeffries is from earlier this month. I think House Democrats have tried to sort of sharpen their strategy. They have a new task force out that's sort of aimed at a new messaging strategy, particularly around the sort of legal efforts that are being fronted in various spaces. But, yeah, I mean, like, some Democrats say there's not a big upside to talking about what you. You can't do. Others, like Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint, who I spoke with, she's a member of the Progressive Caucus, and she told me, like, you know, we should probably educate the public a little bit.

[Becca Balint]

It's clear from talking to my constituents and people who interact with my office, it hasn't really totally sunk in that Republicans are in charge of the House, the Senate, and the White House. So we don't get to control what bills come up on the floor.

[Barbara Sprent]

Yeah, I mean, the minority party can sometimes, particularly in the Senate, slow things down procedurally, but it can't, like, change the math and the makeup of the structure of power that is faced right now by Democrats on Capitol Hill.

[Sarah McCammon]

I mean, that said, the Republican majority in the House, though, is very narrow, just three seats. Domenico. We've reported before about how disunified the Republican conference tends to be. Isn't there some room here for Democrats to maneuver?

[Domenico Montanaro]

Well, life in the minority stinks. I mean, no other way to really put it. I mean, it's hard to really have a lot that you can do, especially procedurally. You know, there is the Senate filibuster for legislation, you know, where they'll need 60 votes to get something passed. And Democrats can certainly stand on that, as Mitch McConnell did when he was Republican leader. But there's gonna be a lot of things, like those Trump tax cuts that Republicans are probably gonna be able to pass by tying it to the budget. They'll only need 51 votes, so. And they certainly have that. So there's not a lot can do procedurally, even when it comes to these nominees. You know, Democrats actually changed the rules some years ago during President Obama's term, because Republicans are standing in the way of a lot of Obama's nominees. They got rid of the filibuster for those Cabinet appointees, so now you only need 51 votes. So beyond, you know, talk a thons or trying to Sort of slow things down a little bit with some procedural maneuvers. There's not a lot they can do to really stand in the way. This is really going to be about messaging. This is going to be about how Democrats are able to take what Trump has been doing, what Elon Musk has been doing, and trying to sell that to the American people as a problem. One of the things we've started to hear from some Democrats, like Hakeem Jeffries there, after he mentioned that, what leverage do we have? Point is about the cost of living and saying that Trump's not focused on the cost of living. Cuz Democrats are trying to reach out more beyond just their base. Cuz certainly a lot of the people in their base are upset about what they see as a breaking of Democratic norms about things like constitutional crises. It didn't work as a message during the election. And it's really difficult because most people don't know or care what the federal government really does. It certainly affects the Washington, D.C. area very directly, but the consequences across the country may take longer to be felt or, you know, if at all.

[Barbara Sprent]

There's also something to be said for, like, you know, there's a lot of opposition to what the Trump administration is doing, obviously among Democrats and grassroots supporters in and outside of the Beltway. But it is like exactly what the president talked about doing in his campaign. And so Democrats navigating that space in their messaging is going to be really interesting to watch. And I think part of that comes to Elon Musk, who you mentioned earlier. Like, you know, their Democrats have already tried to sort of play with some messaging, you know, calling him President Musk and sort of saying things like, you know, people voted for Trump's policies. They didn't vote for this guy to do a remaking, slash and burn kind of style of the federal government.

[Domenico Montanaro]

Yeah, I think a lot of this is really going to land in the courts. Right. I mean, I think that this is the one area that can actually stop what the executive branch is doing and is going to be the sort of final say on the limits that Trump is testing to see whether or not what he does in how he's firing people in the federal workforce or, you know, not wanting to continue congressionally approved funding. If any of that is constitutional or legal, it's going to be settled in the courts. And we know that there's a 6:3 Conservative majority at the Supreme Court. So Trump is happy to test as much of this as possible, and we'll see where the court decides to actually stop him. But politically, it's going to be decided at the ballot box and whether or not a lot of the things that Trump winds up doing seems to go too far with people or if people like what he's doing.

[Sarah McCammon]

Okay, it's time for a quick break. We'll have more in just a moment.

[Public Media Supporter]

Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts. Perks like sponsor free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love [e-mail].

[NPR Economics Host]

There is a lot happening right now in the world of economics. You may have heard about the president's desire for a sovereign wealth fund.

[Carvana Ad]

If your country's small, well governed and has a surplus, it is probably a good idea. We are not any of those.

[NPR Economics Host]

We're here to cover federal buyouts, the cost of deportation, and so much more. Tune in to NPR's the Indicator from Planet Money.

[Carvana Ad]

Hey, it's hey, Martinez. I work on a news show and yeah, the news can feel like a lot on any given day, but you just can't ignore la noticias when important world changing events are happening. So that is where the Up first podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen to the upverse podcast from npr.

[Sarah McCammon]

And we're back. You know, one thing that I find interesting when thinking about all of this is Republicans, when they're in the minority, they've gotten really good at holding things up, you might say, being a bit more obstructionist. They're willing to use the powers of the minority in ways that Democrats don't seem to be willing to do. Domenico, do you get the sense that Democrats might be thinking about that differently now?

[Domenico Montanaro]

I don't think that's wholly accurate, to be fair to Democrats here, because I don't think that Democrats have the same powers that Republicans did have. And I, I think the Democrats tried to go through the Congress way more than Trump is trying to go through Congress. You know, Trump has done everything so far by executive order, by executive actions. You know, a lot of this is reshaping the federal government. He certainly, he's in charge of the executive branch. Some of that, like we said, is going to be determined by the courts and whether or not it's legal. Like we said earlier, they've sort of been a bit more hobbled about the kind of legislative maneuvers that they can Use, you know, especially when it comes to Cabinet appointees or judges. You know, Democrats got rid of that because of how much obstructionism that Republicans used in trying to get judges or Cabinet appointees through. So I do think that there needs to be a little bit of education that goes on about what actually Democrats are able to do. They certainly could do more in being unified on their message or protesting or gathering people to understand, you know, how to fight back. That's hard to do when you don't have one particular person who everyone looks at as the leader of the party.

[Sarah McCammon]

But do they have a different philosophy to some extent about that?

[Domenico Montanaro]

I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think that if they could do it, they would do it. I think that they're generally. I mean, it's very broad strokes, but a bit more opposed to some of those procedural maneuvers. But Republicans would say that's not the case. When you look back on somebody like Harry Reid, the former, you know, Senate Democratic leader, who was able to procedurally spar pretty well and hold his own with Mitch McConnell, there isn't a Harry Re. Reid anymore, really. I mean, Chuck Schumer's more of a messaging guy, and Reid was much more of a procedural guy. And there's a lot of Democrats trying to figure out who is gonna be the person that can really lead them beyond this Trump administration.

[Barbara Sprent]

Yeah, there's this big question mark about who is the resistance figure here. And as you were saying, Domenico, so far, it doesn't necessarily seem like it's Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the House Democrats, is still sort of, I think, finding footing on best messaging practices going forward. I think an interesting thing that we can all look for in March is when the joint address, when the president addresses a joint session of Congress, there's always a Democratic response to that. And who they pick to give that response, I think is going to be really telling about the type of messaging that they're looking to sort of sharpen going forward. Who the messenger is going to be there, I think, is going to be really telling.

[Sarah McCammon]

So, looking at a bit more broadly, I mean, Trump won the election, Republicans took the Senate, they kept the House, and yet a lot of people don't vote in elections. Trump has never had an approval rating above 50%. One would think there's some room for Democrats to make inroads here. But Domenico, is that the case, given the way the country's political structures work?

[Domenico Montanaro]

Sure. I don't know that the structures have anything to do with whether or not Democrats can take back the house in 2026. You know, I think that maybe a little bit of the Democrats have had certainly has been redistricting and gerrymandering where the country sort of tips a little bit more toward Republicans because of how gerrymandered so many Republican seats are. Democrats do it, too, but not as much as Republicans have in multiple states.

[Barbara Sprent]

Well.

[Sarah McCammon]

And the advantage in the Senate.

[Domenico Montanaro]

Right. And the thing is Republicans are unlikely to lose the Senate because of the majority that they have now. The real ball game is gonna be the House and it's only a three seat majority, as you pointed out earlier. And a president generally lose seats in their midterm elections. So I think that's where Democrats are probably gonna be most focused and likely to have the best ability to win based on the issues in those districts. And seeing what the Trump administration does, I mean, it's hard to believe this is, you know, only the first. We're still within the first month. Right. Of the administration. So, you know, there's gonna be a whole lot more that winds up happening. Whether it's popular or not is gonna be a huge reason why Democrats win or don't win.

[Barbara Sprent]

Yeah. And I think like, you know, for all this conversation about, like what is the messaging and who is the messenger from Democrats, you know, a couple members I spoke with were like, you know, we could get a little grace. It has been a couple weeks and there is a fire hose of information and action coming from Pennsylvania Avenue. I think it is going to take time for Democrats to sort of solidify a message. And a lot of that depends on what happens with the courts and also, like, what continued actions Trump takes by executive order, what happens with this budget reconciliation, which is a topic another day. But that is also underway this week. And yeah, it's a long road ahead for Democrats.

[Sarah McCammon]

All right. We're going to leave it there for today. I'm Sarah McCammon. I cover politics.

[Barbara Sprent]

I'm Barbara Sprent. I cover Congress.

[Domenico Montanaro]

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

[Sarah McCammon]

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics podcast.

[Hakeem Jeffries]

There's been a lot of attention on loneliness lately. 16% of Americans report feeling lonely all or most of the time. The former surgeon general even declared a loneliness epidemic on It's Been a Minute. We're launching a new series called all the Lonely People, diving deep into how loneliness shows up in our lives and how our culture shapes it. That's on the It's Been A Minute.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

Podcast on NPR Planet Money is there from California's most expensive fires ever.

[Sarah McCammon]

It was my home. Home, yeah.

[Domenico Montanaro]

Grew up there.

[NPR Planet Money Host]

It's ashes to the potentially largest deportation in, um, to the businesses. They're going to come to the restaurants, they're going to come here. Planet Money, we go to the places at the center of the story. The Planet Money podcast from npr.