NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) try to explain if the Democrats are, like, dead. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Democratic lawmakers protest against Elon Musk outside Treasury Department. Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the Republicans saying about Gaza?
The Republicans have been saying lots of things. Just yesterday, their leader said he wants to own Gaza? The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it. On Monday, the Secretary of State said an entire federal agency was insubordinate.
Chapter 2: Why is USAID in the news?
USAID in particular, they refuse to tell us anything. We won't tell you what the money's going to, where the money's for, who has it. Over the weekend, Vice President Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth, tweeted about the same agency that, you know, gives money to the poorest people on Earth?
We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.
But what have the Democrats been saying? People are aroused. I haven't seen people so aroused in a very, very long time.
Chapter 3: What is the Democrats' strategy to respond to Republicans?
Huh. That's a weird way to put it, Senator. We're going to ask what exactly is the Democrats' strategy to push back on Republicans on Today Explained.
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Sean Ramos, firm halftime host at Today, explained Sahil Kapoor, senior national politics reporter at NBC News. Sahil's been following Democrats as they try to figure out how to respond to Republicans having all the power and doing all the things.
I think it's absolutely fair to call it a work in progress. Akeem Jeffries, the minority leader, got into a room with a bunch of Democrats and said he warned them this administration is going to flood the zone and that Democrats cannot afford to chase every single outrage or that nothing was going to sink in for voters. That's according to a source in the room I spoke to.
This is the classic Steve Bannon strategy of flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They'll bite on one and we'll get all of our stuff done. Just doing a ton of stuff, making a bunch of proclamations and overwhelming the system and the opposition.
That's exactly right. And the message from Hakeem Jeffries was that if Democrats chase every little thing, respond to every little outrage, say one thing today and another thing tomorrow, and then change their message the next week, then nothing was going to stick.
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Chapter 4: How do kitchen table issues impact elections?
And she lost. But the flip side is she had the shortest campaign in presidential campaign history. She had three months to make all of this work. And by then, the damage was done, that she was in such a deep hole that President Biden left her for various reasons, that three months was simply not enough time to recover.
And you can see from the data from the polls that she made up a lot of ground on where President Biden was. And so the argument here among the Democratic leaders is that she was only able to run it close by focusing on those issues.
Chapter 5: What is the role of immigration in Democratic strategies?
The alternate strategy here, as you alluded to, is speaking out on immigration, taking stands on trans rights, opposing Trump's nominees, opposing the Lake and Riley Act. I guess it's too late for that one. Opposing basically everything this president wants to do. I believe Senator Chris Murphy wants to take this approach this week. He's talking about a constitutional crisis.
I worry that the American public is not going to rise up. against the seizure of power if they see Democrats collaborating with Republicans on the floor of the Senate on a regular basis to pass legislation or support nominees.
Are you seeing more Democrats pressing for that approach or pushing against it?
Well, Senator Chris Murphy is arguing that if Democrats appear afraid to cry wolf, then people are going to think that things aren't so bad, that the new Trump administration is basically OK and that there are only a few select things to worry about. Whereas, yes, you're right. He argues this is a five alarm fire, that it's a constitutional crisis and Democrats have to have to act like it.
Now, I will say that dial has moved a little bit in Chris Murphy's direction in recent days, in part because of the actions that the president has taken that have sparked so much outrage.
among his critics and a lot of bafflement even among his supporters, you know, unilaterally freezing federal aid, talking with Elon Musk, saying that he and Donald Trump are going to shut down USAID unilaterally, which is something you need Congress to do. You can't legally do that. A president cannot legally do that on his own. A whole bunch of actions that he has taken
have sparked Democrats into outrage, into fury, into a little bit like the first resistance, it seems at times.
We will see you in the courts, in Congress, in the streets. Elon Musk is a Nazi netball baby.
But again, the argument that they're making is along the lines of he has no plan for the middle class, so he's doing this. He has no plans to improve the lives of people who are hurt by inflation and voted for him. There is still more of a focus this time around, even in the Chris Murphy theory of the case.
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Chapter 6: How are Democrats reacting to Trump's policies?
The popular vote for the first time since 2004, even in 2016 when Trump won, there was still this so-called coalition of the ascendant. You know, they still did very well among that Obama coalition, which had been growing in number. This time they lost an enormous amount of ground among Latino voters. They lost non-white working class voters by huge numbers.
The Democrats believe that the core of their brand, at least since FDR, has been using the power of government to help the working class and the middle class.
And they believe they've lost that because their brand has been defined by all these other things that might appeal to certain parts of the country, that might appeal to the coast, that would appeal to progressives, that would appeal to many young voters who want to reckon with things that they believe the country hasn't in a long time. All of that stuff is not what
swing voters and the working class and the middle class think about. They worry about paying their bills. And the Dems want to be the party that is defined by, we're going to help you do that.
Sahil Kapoor, NBCNews.com. Today Explained from Vox.com asks a Democrat, what's up with the Democrats when we are back?
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Chapter 7: What challenges do Democrats face in upcoming elections?
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This is Today Explained.
So let's jump right in. Would you mind? We ask everyone to do this. It's a cute thing we do. Would you mind just saying your name and how you want us to identify you on the show?
Adam Schiff, and Adam is just fine.
Great. I can't call you Adam. I'm sorry. My mom will get mad. Senator Adam Schiff, congratulations on becoming a senator. Under the first Trump administration, when you were still in the House of Representatives, you were seen as one of the faces of the Democratic resistance. You were the lead prosecutor in Donald Trump's first impeachment case. You and he traded insults a bunch of times.
You campaigned on being one of his toughest critics. What is your plan to oppose his agenda this time around?
My plan is to pick my fights, decide on the things that he's doing that are really destructive, that are harmful to the state and to the country. not chase every crazy squirrel that comes running out of Trump land, to look for areas where we might actually be able to work on things together, like bringing down the cost of living.
Now, a lot of the things he's doing are going to have exactly the opposite effect. The tariffs, the mass deportations, all those things are going to drive up costs. But I'm not going to stop looking for things that I can work together on with the administration. I don't think we have four years to wait until this is over to get anything done.
But judging from the first two weeks of this administration, every violation of law and constitution, every corrupt act he's going to expect and should expect, I'm going to vigorously go after him and push back. I think that's what my constituents are expecting of me.
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