David Weigel
Appearances
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
Yes, but it's by people who sometimes disagree with each other. I don't think, for example, James Carville and Bernie Sanders think they agree with each other that much. But the Carville case, which he made in The New York Times, is that Democrats should play dead, should not try to work with Trump or take credit for anything over the next couple of years.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
Yeah, the Sanders view articulated in his rallies is that there is a looting going on by the billionaire class, by the oligarchy. Democrats should oppose that and people should come out and vote against it in 2026.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
It's the speech he's been giving for decades, which is that the billionaires and the oligarchs are manipulating everybody to get their taxes cut, to get government contracts, to benefit at the expense of everybody else.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
What Democrats expect, Sanders certainly, is these doge cuts are inefficient. They're going to lead to some pain that affects people. And they need, as Democrats or as independents who work with Democrats, to say, if you're angry at the call time for Social Security, that's Trump. If you're angry about not getting health care, that's Trump. If you're angry about prices, that's Trump.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
They're pinning everything to him. on economics, which they're all pretty happy doing. It's just they don't sound happy because they're not winning right now. They think it might take them a long time to win.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
It definitely has inspired Democrats. There was a little bit of embarrassment, I would say, from Democratic politicians because they lost the election. Their base was very demotivated. But the Sanders message is, let's ignore all that. This is about economics. And if you get to a situation where people associate Doge with things being broken and not working, boom, that's the election.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
Then you can say, hey, we're the Democratic Party. We're the party that want to fix this stuff. It's hard right now because there is a lot of work to do to rehabilitate what they stand for. And they believe, I'd say led by Sanders fairly, that starts with saying this idea that the billionaires are going to come in and cut waste and you're all going to benefit is crazy.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
Come back to us and we'll give you something better when you get tired of that.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
He's really only had conservative guests on this podcast. And my understanding just from covering Newsom and talking to him during the campaign last time is he is he's the governor of California. He is the most famous liberal, I'd say, avatar of liberalism in America. And he also signed off on a lot of progressive ideas. over his career in San Francisco as mayor and as governor.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
And he watched those become less popular. So he mentioned to Charlie Kirk that he has four kids and one of his sons is into Charlie Kirk.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
That really has sat within Newsom. He's talked about this before. How come I can't even convince my family that what I'm doing is correct? And how come culturally my ideas are not winning the next generation? And so the long-term goal, you could argue, oh, this is about how he's positioning himself for president.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
But that's part of it is he really is trying to figure out, I think sincerely, why it is that conservatives don't take people like him seriously or liberals seriously or I'd say pluralists, just people who think immigration is good and diversity is good and LGBT rights are good. How can we reach them?
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
And one thing he's clearly doing with these interviews is saying, hey, I'm in your space now and this is what I really think. I'm willing to concede some mistakes I made, but here's why I believe what I believe. Let's talk it out. So he is experimenting.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
Well, they do agree with Sanders that the people have left the Democratic coalition over the sense that they are not working for them. And they are not quite sure what to do about the tension. The chair about Slotkin was anger that she said, you know, that she praised basically Ronald Reagan.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
And you saw people on the left saying, if you're saying Reagan was good in any way, you don't understand what's going on. But she is trying to just turn the clock back as badly as Democrats were doing under Ronald Reagan. They still were doing much better with working class voters. They still were the party of labor unions, the party of trade protectionism, the party of good wages for hard work.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
And they lost that. And so how do you how do you restore that without selling out all the other people in your coalition? That's what she's trying to do. But it is in a different tone. And just the way Democrats have been talking in the last, I'd say, year, you could see Democrats moving away from not just identity politics, but the idea that it was good if America's identity was changing.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
It was a little bit less white working class. And Slotkin's speech was one of a couple of examples, I think, of suddenly not doing that.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
Well, everyone, you mentioned the Democratic governors who we all expect to be running soon, like J.B. Pritzker, Wes Moore, Gretchen Whitmer. They've made a couple of big stands against what Trump is doing. But I think it's interesting what they're not emphasizing quite as much. They are letting the attorneys general speak. lead on suing the administration over federal job cuts, firings.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
The administration is trying to shut down congressionally created agencies. They're kind of letting them do that. They're letting the congressional party do that. The governors are focused more on this economic message that I was talking about. There are some Democrats who say
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
You need to comprehensively challenge the way this administration is using its power to deport people, to arrest people, to silence people. And there are some Democrats saying, that's great. That's not how we win. We're going to focus on economics instead. The left of the party is getting more invested in these issues.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
And the other side of the party, if I can not characterize all their thinking, is But because Trump won and because Trump won more nonwhite voters and because Trump's polling on immigration is so good, there is a worry that the Trump vision of who deserves to be in the country is quite popular. I think this is an interesting tension in the party.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
And that is that is a tension to watch as people start running for higher office, let's say, AOC jumped into the presidential race and Pete Buttigieg jumped in the presidential race. Well, one of them has been talking about immigration and whether this is a new red scare. And one of them has been saying we need to focus on jobs. That is a fight in the party.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
You can see which which one thinks you need a comprehensive, destroy the Trump ideology, even at its strongest. And one of them saying beat Trump, but attack at the weak points. Don't don't attack where he's strong because we've done that before and we lose.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
It does. Yes, Democrats came together a bit more over the last week, but their fate was not entirely in their hands. They've had a message really since they lost the election. I'd say right before they were a little more muddled on the role of Elon Musk and the idea that Trump is going to hand the country over to billionaires and cut things you love to give tax cuts to the rich.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
They actually have been saying that for months and months and months. But did it click? until recently. I don't really think it did. And we've seen polling this week from CNN that shows while Trump's more popular on immigration policy than ever, this is the lowest approval he's had on the economy. And that's good for Democrats.