Democrats are reportedly very frustrated over Trump’s recent fight with The Squad because they believe Trump won this round. According to Jake Tapper, who spent some time with Democrats yesterday, they are saying what Trump did was politically brilliant:
House Democrats appeared unified in their votes this week but I’ve spent the day talking to a bunch of them and many are extremely frustrated. All agree POTUS’s tweets needed to be condemned; they spoke under condition of anonymity so they could be candid. (Thread)
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
2/ “The president won this one,” said House Dem 1 of the Trump v Squad (AOC, Tlaib, Omar & Pressley) showdown. “What the president has done is politically brilliant. Pelosi was trying to marginalize these folks and the president has now identified the entire party with them.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
Wow. That’s some admission coming from Democrats, even if it is anonymous.
They also believe Trump is taking them off message and that is hurting them politically:
3/ Another issue: what are Dems focused on? Is it what will help the class of 2018 (largely more moderate than the Squad) get reelected?
Dem Rep 2: “The president’s words and actions speak for themselves. We need to focus on the issues that got them here: jobs, health care…”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
4/ “…instead of the issues the president brings up deliberately. Anything that takes away from bread and butter issues is playing into his hands.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
Other House Democrats are angry Trump forced them to defend The Squad:
5/ Other House Democrats are conflicted about having to defend the Squad given things they’ve said and done. House Dems cited: talk of supporting challengers to incumbent Dems in primaries, AOC’s use of the term “concentration camps,” anti-Semitic comments by Tlaib & Omar.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
5/ Other House Democrats are conflicted about having to defend the Squad given things they’ve said and done. House Dems cited: talk of supporting challengers to incumbent Dems in primaries, AOC’s use of the term “concentration camps,” anti-Semitic comments by Tlaib & Omar.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
7/ “…but this was the *first* time the House has taken action to criticize him in any way, We couldn’t even bring ourselves to have a resolution exclusively condemning anti-Semitism uttered by one of those members” — Omar — “but we leapt to their defense here.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
They are upset because they feel The Squad has been unjustly attacking Democrats and yet they’ve now been forced to defend them:
10/ House Dem 4 recalls that “less than 2 weeks ago when members of our caucus were trying to support funds for children at the border,” the Squad was arguing that “we’re pro-putting kids in cages, we’re against human rights. So there’s frustration.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
11/ Others noted that this week the House Democratic Caucus stood by a group that is not perceived as standing by them.
“I can’t tell you the number of Members who are angry and annoyed about them criticizing us,” said House Dem 3.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
12/ AOC, in particular “gives her chief of staff license to get candidates to run against her colleagues and to go after them on social media. It makes people’s skin crawl,” said House Dem 3.
House Dem 4 summed it up: “We were there for them; they should stop attacking us.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
And lastly, incase you noticed some numbers were missing, Democrats are dreading Omar’s bill defending BDS and are just praying she doesn’t say anything anti-Semtitic:
8/ A few House Dems noted that Omar and Tlaib just introduced a resolution affirming the right of Americans to boycott, perceived as an expression of support for the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) movement that most House Dems oppose.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
9/ “So we’ll hear a tirade of attacks on Israel from the same group,” said House Dem 3. “Hopefully they won’t be anti Semitic.”
House Dem 4 also brought up that bill coming “from someone with a history of anti-Semitism” — Omar — “So yeah it’s challenging.”
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 17, 2019
Based on this reporting Democrats sound like a frustrated mess, all because Trump took on The Squad. Amazing.