Welcome to Washington: Democrats Looking To Run for President Have a Mealy-Mouthed Problem

Democrats, since their fear that President Trump could return to the White House in 2025 has become a reality, are desperately trying to figure out what went wrong. Was President Biden just too unpopular for his own vice president to win? Should there have been a mini-primary? Should different information avenues, such as podcasts and YouTube debate shows, been more utilized?Welcome to Washington, where Democrats hoping to be their party’s nominee in 2028 are testing the independent press as a way to capture the attention of young and disaffected voters. Senators are going on podcasts more often, House members are filming TikTok videos in the halls of Congress, and governors are sitting down with Twitch streamers to talk about their records and what they hope to accomplish in the future. One thing they are learning quickly, however, is that those new interviewers — the independent types with small production budgets and even smaller staffs or editorial standards — do not suffer fools as easily as the mainstream press. For those interviewers committed to the Democratic Party and the progressive movement care not about playing nice, even if one is a United States senator. Mealy-mouthed answers on key issues will not fly come 2028. Take the case of Jennifer Welch, who along with her friend Angie Sullivan started the “I’ve Had It” podcast in 2022. Just three years later, they were invited to the Democratic National Convention to interview President Obama, moderated a discussion with Vice President Kamala Harris as part of her 2025 book tour, and regularly since last year have been hosting well-known Democrats. Ms. Welch, a former reality television star, hosted Senator Cory Booker on her show just this last week, where he defended Israel’s war against Hamas. Her obvious frustration with Mr. Booker during the interview seemed to be less about his support for Israel than about his inability to offer his genuine thoughts about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Do you think he’s a war criminal?” Ms. Welch asked Mr. Booker of Mr. Netanyahu. “These are questions that a lot of people think are the important litmus tests that are loaded and hot,” Mr. Booker bloviated without either denouncing or endorsing the Israeli premier. “My urgency is to be an effective leader in bringing an end to this crisis, and I get these questions all the time, that — to me — undermine my urgency.”Ms. Welch then shot back, praising those newcomer Democrats who are able to go on podcasts and YouTube shows and answer questions with a simple yes or no. “That’s the end of it. It’s not all of the rhetoric answering,” Ms. Welch said. “What happens to Democratic politicians is they go through this prism and then we can’t ever get, like, the answer to yes or no [questions].”Feature what happened to Senator Chris Murphy earlier this year when he sat down with the conservative New York Times opinion columnist, Ross Douthat. When asked about transgender students playing in sports leagues that are designated for a different sex, Mr. Murphy danced around the question. “I don’t have girls, so I necessarily can’t put myself in that position,” Mr. Murphy said, trying to avoid the question of whether he believed it would be unfair for a biological male to compete in girls’ sports. “I talk to lots of parents of girls in Connecticut who do not think it is unfair. … I think everybody can come to their own conclusion.” He went on to say — after much prodding — that he would allow those transgender athletes to compete, but it should be decided at the local level. Journalist and commentator Van Lathan had a similar interaction this week with Governor Gavin Newsom. When Mr. Lathan told him that he personally would not support anyone for president in 2028 who had taken donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Mr. Newsom responded only by saying that it was “interesting” he would say such a thing. The governor said the question was “not relevant” to him, because he is a governor, not a federal official. While Israel and transgender sports may be newsworthy questions right now, who knows what will be the most pressing issue for Democratic voters come December 2027, when the primaries kick off. What is clear is that the same caution, posturing, and soliloquizing that helped sink Ms. Harris’s campaign last year is alive and well in the Democratic Party.

Welcome to Washington: Democrats Looking To Run for President Have a Mealy-Mouthed Problem

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