Politics

Pod Save America Bros Ask: Where Are the Democrats?

PAGING THE RESISTANCE

Democrats need to get out there and show some emotion instead of fussing over their strategy, Obama’s former aides argued on their latest podcast episode.

Pod Save America host Jon Favreau speaks into a microphone.
Pod Save America/YouTube

Democrats need to stop obsessing over their strategy for resisting President Donald Trump and just go out and act like they give a damn, the hosts of Pod Save America said on their latest episode.

“Isn’t that the lesson you draw from the last four years? Get the f--- out there,” host Jon Lovett said. “Get out there, start responding, tell the truth… You don’t leave the field and build some playbook for how to respond and defeat Trump. You get out there and you start doing it. You see what works.”

Over the weekend, Politico ran an article noting Democrats’ muted response to Trump’s first week in office, even as he signed a flurry of executive orders, including a full pardon for more than 1,500 rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Instead of criticizing the pardons, many of the party’s 2028 hopefuls are staying quiet and biding their time as they “think through their argument” and wait for public sentiment to turn against Trump, Politico reported.

That strategy might work to a point with certain scandals—like what kind of salute “First Buddy” Elon Musk really threw during his speech after Trump’s inauguration—but Democrats need to stop “overthinking every single thing” and start fighting, even as they come up with an overall vision for the country, host Jon Favreau said.

Favreau argued the public wants politicians who “are going to actually go out there and fight for them and give a damn” as opposed to just reading a perfectly crafted statement.

Not decrying the Jan. 6 pardons in particular was “crazy,” he said, both because the pardons sent a “dangerous” message to right-wing extremists that they could commit political violence, and because polling found most Americans—including Republicans—opposed the blanket pardons.

On Monday, Senate Democrats introduced a one-sentence resolution condemning the pardons for anyone found guilty of assaulting a Capitol police officer. But the Pod guys weren’t impressed with the timing or the intensity of Democrats’ message.

“I would rather have Democrats go to the mic the morning after it happened… and like all of them, with Capitol police officers, with everyone else, and shown some real emotion,” Favreau said. “Not everything has to be planned and perfectly thought out. Just go f---ing do stuff, guys.”

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