Welcome to the online edition of From The Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that provides the latest reports and analysis from the NBC News Politics team’s White House, Capitol Hill and Campaign Trail.
Thursday is happy and welcome to the beginning of March’s madness. Today’s edition explores how Democrats are dealing with city hall calls and how one lawmaker is stepping into the party’s leadership void in order to push back more forcefully against President Donald Trump. In that memo, Jonathan Allen writes that some Democrats are already upset to reach the main presidential process.
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– Adam Walner
breaking news: Trump has signed an executive order to begin demolition of the education sector. Congressional approval is required to completely eliminate the department. Read more →
Democrats face demands to strengthen their opposition to Trump
Republicans aren’t just listening at their local town hall, as well as reports from President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, as well as reports from Sahil Kapoor, Scott Wong, Brennan Leach and Sida Asgal.
Democrats are also facing a crowd this week who hope to bolster their fight against Trump. Anger has escalated since Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) led a group of Democrats to help advance Republican government fundraising bills Trump supported to avoid government shutdowns, prompting questions about whether party leaders are on the challenge.
The latest example came on Wednesday night just outside Denver, when city hall attendees tore D-Colo Sen. Michelle Bennett to the vote to confirm some of Trump’s cabinet candidates. “The words are great, but I’m not really seeing the actions,” the person said.
Towards the start of the event, Bennett held it with D-Colo Rep. Brittany Pettersen. – Participants cried for a minute as Bennett tried to calm the crowd.
Chasing whether Schumer should continue to be Senate Democrat leader, Schumer called for President Joe Biden to stand aside during the 2024 campaign.
“Let’s say it’s important for people to know when dodging your questions. “And with Joe Biden, we’re going to have future conversations about all democratic leaders.
Important Numbers: A recent NBC News poll found 65% of Democrats want their elected representatives to stick to their position and retain the boundaries against Trump, while 32% want to challenge him. This is a dramatic shift from Trump’s first terminology. An April 2017 NBC News poll found 59% of Democrats support a compromise on Trump, while 33% said lawmakers should stick to their position.
Democrat leadership is invalid: As Democrats are screaming to find a genuine and effective messenger for the Second Trump administration, there is a growing desire to somehow promote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez within the party in one way or another, according to interviews with dozens of Democrats, aides and strategists.
As Ryan nobles Melanie Zanona and Jonathan Allen report, some of the Democrats’ first skepticism about the progressive star when she first arrived in Washington six years ago began to decline as she established herself as a political player at Capitol Hill and demonstrated a unique knack for communicating with the younger generation.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif, has publicly urged Ocasio-Cortez to launch a major Senate challenge to Schumer in 2028 if she runs for reelection, and several House Democrats told NBC News that her colleagues also urged her to Prime with the party’s retreat last week.
Since Thursday, she has been receiving her message on the road alongside fellow progressive heavyweights, Sen. Bernie Sanders and I-VT. The pair hosts a series of meetings in Swing District and university campuses in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado, and are expected to attract a large crowd, raising questions she has inevitable considering the higher office and even the president’s run.
As for Republicans, on the other hand, few GOP lawmakers held City Hall this week during a council break after portraying a crowd of anger and frustration earlier this year. Rep. RN.C. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, advised members to hold in-person city halls.
But Rep. Harriet Haageman R-Wyo. faced a Heckles and Boo rapids in Laramie, Wyoming, as they tried to downplay concerns about Trump and Musk, Kate Santalis and Megan Lubowitz’s reports on Wednesday night.
“It’s so weird to me that you’re obsessed with the federal government,” Hageman said, adding that the participants “hysteria is really just on the top.”
Some Democrats want to surge in the 2028 primary
Jonathan Allen
Nikki Fried, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, cannot wait for the 2028 presidential primary to progress.
“They all need to declare earlier later,” Freed said of the White House hopes. “They need to get out there. They need to sharpen their knives. They need to get excited the base. They need to be able to stand up to what’s going on in Washington, DC.”
Freed said the energy from the campaign event sucked up media attention from President Donald Trump and that the party would not oppose the selection of its candidates early and at once.
“Why don’t you run in November 2016 and vote?” she said. “Forget all of this ‘Iowa has to go first’ or North Carolina or South Carolina.
Fried doesn’t just feel that he has increased the urgency early in Trump’s term, according to several Democrat officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the party strategy. They also said that these officials were the only ones who wanted to hold primary and aucus before the traditional start at the beginning of the election year.
However, it is too early to make decisions about the calendar, three officials said. Very early on, one Democratic National Committee adviser said it was “not the radar of DNC leadership in general.” Also, state laws can prevent official contests from being held before 2028, even if the parties wish to change their primary dates.
At the same time, new DNC chair Ken Martin wants to regain the form of the Democratic Party’s long-term midterm convention in 2026, the DNC advisor said. The parties did not choose candidates at the time, but they held a meeting that attracted attention.
In a small way, Shadow Primary has already begun, with prominent Democrats holding campaign-style rallies, using their elected offices to oppose Trump, and in the case of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a podcast focused on politics.
“Everyone is playing this toe game. (People) know you’re all running – just go,” Freed said. “The base wants to know who our next leader is. When can we leave this funk and move on to the next chapter?”
today’s other top stories
In an interview with anow on Air: “Meet the Press,” Schumer said Trump’s escalating attacks on the judiciary have led to a constitutional crisis. Read more Read more →⚖→More from the court: A federal judge on Thursday denounced the Department of Justice’s latest response to his request for details on deportation flights under wartime law known as the alien enemy, as “severely inadequate.” Read more → Online: Vice President JD Vance told Henry J. Gomez that he has a prolific tendency to “make mistakes on the open side” by using social media prolifically. Read more → 📃Document Dump: The latest batch of JFK assassination documents showed distrust of the CIA when John F. Kennedy was president. Read more Today we bring you his guide to the NCAA Tournament. Read more → Follow the Live Politics Updates →
For now, it’s all from the political desk. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Faith Wardwell.
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