Democrats lost the Senate and the White House in November's elections. Now as a minority party, their representatives — and their voters — are trying to figure out what to do next, and how to provide a roadblock to President Trump's ambitions. This episode: political correspondent Sarah McCammon, congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt, and senior political editor & correspondent Domenico Montanaro.The podcast is produced by Bria Suggs & Kelli Wessinger, and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Sarah McCammon. I cover politics.
I'm Barbara Sprint. I cover Congress. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
Chapter 2: How are Democrats responding to their minority status?
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 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 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.
Chapter 3: What are Democratic voters demanding from their representatives?
Barbara, you've been reporting on this. How is that attitude going down with many Democratic voters?
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 X, Y, Z? There was a rally recently in response to the furlough of a lot of employees of USAID employees.
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 going to 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.
Chapter 4: What messaging strategies are Democrats considering?
So certainly Democrats are up against these limitations you just described. But there are some Democrats, even some of Jeffrey's colleagues, who would like to see a different tone here. I mean, what are they saying that they are doing now?
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 can't do. Others like Vermont Congresswoman Becca Ballant, 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.
It's clear from talking to my constituents and people who interact with my office that 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.
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.
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?
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Chapter 5: Can Democrats leverage Republican division in Congress?
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 a Republican leader.
But there's going to be a lot of things like those Trump tax cuts that Republicans are probably going to 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 that Democrats can do procedurally, even when it comes to these nominees.
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 talkathons 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 because Democrats are trying to reach out more beyond just their base because 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.
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Chapter 6: How are Democrats addressing the cost of living issue?
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 is. Right.
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
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.
Okay, it's time for a quick break. We'll have more in just a moment. 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?
I don't think that's wholly accurate, to be fair to Democrats here, because I don't think the Democrats have the same powers that Republicans did have. And I think the Democrats tried to go through the Congress way more than Trump is trying to go through Congress. Trump has done everything so far by executive order, by executive actions. A lot of this is reshaping the federal government.
He certainly is 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, especially when it comes to cabinet appointees or judges.
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 how to fight back.
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