The Democratic Party’s attempt to wage a comeback months after a devastating election cycle last year continues to suffer setbacks.
The Left’s struggle to execute an effective response to the White House was on full display this week as President Donald Trump made a high-profile joint address to Congress outlining what his administration has done since he took office and listing his priorities for the next four years.
The speech represented a prime opportunity for Democrats to articulate solutions and alternatives to voters. And coming off a month in which protests against one of Trump’s pet programs, the Department of Government Efficiency, had unsettled Republican lawmakers across the country, there seemed to be a further opening for the Democratic Party to wage a savage strike on the GOP agenda. However, despite seemingly endless attempts to launch attacks against Trump, their tactics were mocked, leaving Democratic strategists worried the party seems unable to break out of a losing cycle.
On Tuesday, at least 22 Democratic senators made videos attacking the White House in an effort to discredit Trump ahead of his big speech that evening.
But the strategy quickly went awry as it only seemed to fuel critics in MAGA who ridiculed the videos for sticking to the same script and waging an inauthentic assault on Trump with “sh*t that ain’t true.”
“Who is writing the words that the puppets speak?” DOGE leader Elon Musk posted on X, as others branded the videos “staged.”
“22 Democrat Senators have published the same embarrassing video. Whichever consultant thought this was a good idea should be fired,” Conservative personality Charlie Kirk added.
The day only went downhill for Democrats as their response to Trump’s speech received backlash from across the aisle.
Throughout the speech, Democrats waved anti-Trump and anti-DOGE signs that were later derided as “bingo” signs. Democrats were also rebuked after declining to stand for several people Trump recognized during his speech, including a 13-year-old boy diagnosed with terminal cancer who the president made an honorary Secret Service agent and also a teenager who was surprised with news during the speech that he had been accepted to West Point.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) scrolled on her phone throughout the speech as lawmakers, including Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) walked out of the chamber. “Those are lies,” other Democrats repeatedly shouted during the address.
Rep. Al Green (D-TX) generated perhaps the most negative publicity when he began yelling and waving his cane at the president on Tuesday evening. After he was forcibly removed from the chamber, the House adopted a measure censuring the Texas Democrat on Thursday, making him only the 28th member of the House to receive the congressional rebuke.
The outbursts demonstrated deep disagreements among Democrats about how to approach resistance efforts, as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had warned his caucus prior to the speech to keep the anti-Trump tone to more “dignified” levels.
Following the controversial evening, Democrats vented against their own party, further showcasing the fragmentation undermining a unified response to the Trump administration.
“Despicable,” Democratic strategist David Axelrod said of Green’s outburst during an appearance on CNN. “I think there were times when [Democrats] should’ve risen,” he added in reference to lawmakers who refused to give any standing ovations.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) characterized the protests as “a sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance.”
“It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained,” he wrote Wednesday following the joint address. “We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message.”
“We never learn,” one Democratic strategist told the Hill. “We can’t just be the party that barks at Trump, and I’m sorry, but that’s what we are. And until we learn that lesson, we’re going to lose.”
With Democrats on the defensive, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seized on the backlash to suggest the angry reaction to the speech “reminded us they are the party of insanity and hate.”
“They could not even clap for a child battling cancer, or mothers who lost their children,” she said on X. “Tonight, President Trump absolutely owned the moment.”
Republican activists piled on, too, highlighting online polls that showed an overwhelming majority of viewers approved of Trump’s speech despite Democratic efforts to undermine the address.
The Democratic Party faced further political headwinds on Wednesday when a New York Times investigation found that at least seven senior officials affiliated with one of its top online fund-raising platforms had resigned.
The departures from ActBlue followed congressional investigations into the organization that were sparked in 2023 over concerns that weak donor verification policies possibly allowed foreign entities to make contributions and “illegally participate in the U.S. political process.”
Last October, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced the Treasury Department had found hundreds of ActBlue transactions that had been flagged as “potentially fraudulent and illicit financial activity.” Other Republicans, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, have said their “investigation into ActBlue has uncovered facts indicating that bad actors can illegally interfere in American elections by disguising political donations.”
The chaos churning in ActBlue and among congressional Democrats comes as polls show widespread dissatisfaction with how the Left is conducting itself and as Republicans seize on tactics such as “fighter” video campaigns against Trump to argue that the opposition is characterized by “performance activism.”
Blueprint, a Democratic polling company, released an analysis on Thursday stating that a “large plurality, 40%, of voters—and higher shares of independents and non-college voters—believe Democrats have no clear strategy to oppose Trump, signaling an urgent need for a cohesive narrative.” Of the Democrats surveyed, 40% believe their party has “no clear strategy to respond to Trump,” and only 10% believe Democrats have an effective “resistance strategy” to the White House.
The news, Blueprint wrote, came despite a number of issues the polling group characterized as “vulnerabilities” for Trump, including DOGE and inflation, which Democrats have failed to successfully capitalize on.
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“Democrats need a sharper definition of what they stand for,” the polling firm concluded.
Another poll released Feb. 19 by Quinnipiac University showed nearly half of all Democratic voters disapprove of how their leaders in Congress are “handling their job,” an all-time high, the survey reported. That number compared to only 10% of Republicans who disapproved of party leadership, a record low, per Quinnipiac.
