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Is US House 'Only Hope' for Blocking Worst of Trump's Return?
"How much damage is done at the federal level to the progress we have made will... depend on the election outcomes inthe House of Representatives and the role it will play," said one climate expert.
Nov 06, 2024
While Republicans have won the White House and U.S. Senate as of early Wednesday afternoon, control of the House of Representatives remains too close to call—and may be the only governmental firewall against the GOP's fascist federal agenda.
Democrats went into the Tuesday election hoping to flip the House, which is now narrowly controlled by Republicans. There are 435 seats in the lower chamber, so the party to secure 218 of them will have the majority.
Various decision desks have called 179 to 193 House seats for Democrats and 200 to 210 for Republicans. The Associated Pressnoted that "vote-counting can take weeks in California, where most voters use mail-in ballots."
Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who won his ninth term on Tuesday, toldThe Hill early Wednesday that "in terms of the power trifecta, the House is the only hope for Democrats to maintain a check on our out-of-control Donald Trump," now the president-elect.
"The House is the only hope for Democrats to maintain a check on our out-of-control Donald Trump."
"The results tonight are grim... for the country, and Democrats offer those who believe in constitutional democracy the only hope of presence in the White House and an enabling Republican Senate," Connolly said. "So a lot is hinging on district-by-district results tonight."
The AP has called flips in New York's 19th and 22nd Congressional Districts, with Democrats Josh Riley and John Mannion ousting Republican Congressmen Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams, respectively. Democrat Laura Gillen is also on track to beat GOP Rep. Anthony D'Esposito in the state's 4th District; she has declared victory.
"Our livable future was on the ballot this year, and New York's climate movement delivered," declared Food & Water Action New York state director Laura Shindell, whose group endorsed Gillen and Riley. "New Yorkers voted like our lives depended on it, rebuking the dangerous pro-corporate Project 2025 interests seeking to boost climate-killing fossil fuels, dismantle clean air and water safeguards, and spread misinformation and distrust about the reality of the crisis we face."
"New York's newest congressional representatives have the backing of the state's grassroots climate movement—now, it's time to get to work fighting for our livable future against all odds, and delivering the climate wins that won them their seats," Shindell said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) similarly welcomed the "critically important" wins in his state on social media. Redistricting also helped Democrats pick up seats in Alabama, where Shomari Figures won the state's 2nd Congressional District, and Lousiaina, where former Congressman Cleo Fields claimed victory in the newly drawn 6th District.
However, the GOP has picked up two seats in Pennsylvania—with Republicans Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan beating Democratic Reps. Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright, respectively—plus three in North Carolina, thanks to redistricting. Republican Tom Barrett also flipped an open seat in Michigan's 7th Congressional District.
As Bloombergreported Wednesday:
Democratic House control would force Republicans to negotiate on trillions of dollars worth of provisions in the 2017 tax law that expire at the end of next year. It also would provide a check on Trump's "America First" foreign policy agenda, providing perhaps some hope to Ukraine and other allies of continued support.
The House under Democratic control also impeached Trump twice during his first term in office. He was never convicted by the Senate.
Key issues on the minds of progressive lawmakers and advocates across the country on Wednesday included reproductive freedom and the climate emergency.
"How much damage is done at the federal level to the progress we have made will... depend on the election outcomes inthe House of Representatives and the role it will play," Chitra Kumar, managing director of the Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote Wednesday.
Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement that "control of the House is still undetermined, and it's critical that every vote be counted."
"If Democrats retake the House, it will be essential that they stand strong against Trump's reactionary agenda," Hauter stressed. "We've seen Trump's playbook before and we're prepared to confront him head-on—through the courts, in Congress, and through determined grassroots organizing that has been responsible for great progress in the face of adversity for generations."
Even if Democrats don't win a House majority, progressive organizers remain determined to combat the far-right agenda.
"Our story does not end with this election result; we have a lot of work ahead of us. The future we are dreaming of is worth fighting for."
"Despite the deeply disappointing results of the election yesterday, our work to build a better future for our families and our nation does not end here," said MoveOn Political Action executive director Rahna Epting in a statement. "Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans will continue to try and divide us in hopes we give up and clear the path for them to dismantle our democracy and take away our freedoms."
"As exhausted and defeated as we all may feel right now, giving up is not an option. The organizers, change-makers, and heroes before us have sacrificed far too much for us to drop the baton and surrender now," she continued. "Our story does not end with this election result; we have a lot of work ahead of us. The future we are dreaming of is worth fighting for."
Acknowledging the tens of millions of people who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and a Democratic Congress, Epting added that "together, we can defeat the far right by staying engaged, mobilizing our communities, and remaining defiant guardrails against their fascist vision for our country."
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Push for Biden to Drop Out Reaches Very Top of Democratic Party
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have reportedly urged the president to step aside.
Jul 18, 2024
The two highest-ranking Democrats in the U.S. Congress have reportedly warned President Joe Biden behind closed doors that his continued presence at the top of the party's ticket could imperil down-ballot candidates in November.
The New York Timesreported late Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) "each told Mr. Biden privately over the past week that their members were deeply concerned about his chances in November and the fates of House and Senate candidates" should he defy calls to drop his reelection bid against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
ABC Newsreported that Schumer "had a blunt conversation with Biden, making the case it would be best if Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race."
"A source familiar with the matter tells ABC News that House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has expressed similar views directly to Biden, suggesting he should drop out of the race," the outlet added.
The conversations with Democratic leaders appear to have left Biden "more receptive" to calls to drop out, according to the Times—an attitude that contrasts with the incumbent president's furious dismissal of concerns expressed by rank-and-file Democrats in recent private conversations.
Twenty House Democrats and one Democratic senator have publicly urged Biden to step aside to date, and a poll released Wednesday showed that 65% of Democratic voters want the president to withdraw from the 2024 race.
"To argue that Biden staying in is good for Dems is to argue that you have a better grasp of the electoral situation than Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries."
Politicoreported Wednesday that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—the former House speaker—told Biden directly last week that "she and other Democratic lawmakers worry that he's dragging down the party." One unnamed ally of Pelosi told the outlet that she intends to "do everything in her power to make sure" Biden is replaced at the top of the Democratic ticket.
"To argue that Biden staying in is good for Dems is to argue that you have a better grasp of the electoral situation than Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries," wrote progressive organizer Aaron Regunberg, a vocal proponent of replacing Biden at the top of the ticket.
The reported conversations between Biden and leading Democrats underscore the extent to which previously marginal calls for the incumbent to step aside have quickly spread to every level of the party, from grassroots activists to leadership to delegates to the party's convention.
Politicoobtained messages exchanged by Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegates and activists in California in the wake of Biden's disastrous debate performance against Trump last month.
"DNC delegate Susan Bolle in the days after the debate said she heard from more than 150 of the voters she represents asking her to call for Biden to step down," the outlet reported Thursday.
Despite protests from delegates and some House Democrats, the Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday that it plans to hold a virtual roll call vote to nominate Biden at the beginning of August, weeks before the party's convention in Chicago later that month.
"A virtual roll call before the convention would be unprecedented for a major party, with both Democrats and Republicans traditionally formalizing their nominee at their convention—even if the selection has already been made months earlier through the primary and caucus process," The Washington Postreported Wednesday.
Experts say claims that a virtual roll call is necessary to ensure the Democratic nominee is not kept off the ballot in several states, including Ohio, are false.
"I don't think it's serious to say that Democrats need to do a virtual roll call to assure their party's nominee will be on the ballot," Rick Hasen, a professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in a blog post earlier this week. "This is about politics, not law."
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'The Stakes Could Not Be Higher': Debate Disaster Ignites Calls for Biden to Step Aside
"You're deluded if you believe Joe Biden, at this stage of his life, is the best person Democrats have to offer against Donald Trump, against a fascist," said journalist Mehdi Hasan.
Jun 28, 2024
President Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance Thursday evening against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump—an unhinged, would-be authoritarian whose lies were glaring and constant—sent much of the Democratic Party establishment into a spiral of panic and ignited calls for the incumbent to step aside to allow another Democratic candidate to take on the former president in November.
The alarm began to set in just minutes into the
CNN-moderated event in Atlanta, with Democratic operatives and lawmakers exchanging despairing texts with reporters and each other after the president declared—after appearing to lose his train of thought—that "we finally beat Medicare," an absurd line that followed his stumbling attempt to explain that the nation's ultra-rich pay far too little in taxes.
"For example, we have a thousand trillionaires in America—I mean billionaires, in America," said Biden, his voice raspy from what his campaign says was a cold. "And what's happening? They're in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2% in taxes. If they just paid 24% or 25%, either one of those numbers, they'd raised $500 million—billion dollars, I should say, in a 10-year period."
The beltway access outlet Politicoreported that the text message inboxes of its journalists quickly blew up with expressions of dismay from Democratic lawmakers and the names of potential options to replace the 81-year-old incumbent, who cruised through the primary process without a serious challenge.
"I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue," an unnamed member of the House Democratic caucus wrote to Politico. An anonymous Democratic insider told the outlet that they believe "there are short lists being made" for Biden's potential replacement, lists that reportedly include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
An unnamed Democratic lawmaker toldThe Financial Times that "many House Democrats tonight, representing a wide cross-section of the Democratic caucus, were privately texting one another that Biden needs to announce he's decided not to run for reelection"—a belated conclusion that drew disdain from commentators who have been warning for months that a Biden reelection bid could be calamitous.
"Hilarious to watch elite consensus shift and see all the media folk who knowingly created the Biden 2024 catastrophe now desperately try to maintain credibility by depicting themselves as the courageous voices demanding a course correction when it may already be too late," The Lever's David Sirota wrote Friday morning.
The frenzied discussions of a last-ditch replacement effort spilled over into the
editorial pages of major newspapers, panel discussions with former White House officials and ex-lawmakers, and the segments of prominent corporate television shows, including MSNBC's "Morning Joe"—which Biden reportedly watches obsessively.
Morning Joe, Biden’s favorite show, is wavering.
“If he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 corporation in America keep him on as CEO?”
pic.twitter.com/bSZisE3FDU
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 28, 2024
In a panel discussion following Thursday night's 90-minute debate, CNN national political correspondent John King said that "there is a deep, a wide, and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party" that began shortly after the debate kicked off and "continues right now."
"It involves party strategists, it involves elected officials, and it involves fundraisers. They are having conversations about the president's performance, which they think was dismal, which they think will hurt other people down the party in the ticket," said King. "And they're having conversations about what they should do about it. Some of those conversations include should we go to the White House and ask the president to step aside. Other conversations are about should prominent Democrats go public with that call."
Dire concerns about Biden's performance and broader readiness to compete in the November election were amplified by Trump's showing during Thursday night's debate, which further showed that the presumptive Republican candidate poses a grave threat to democracy, the climate, workers, and fundamental rights.
"Tonight put on full display how broken our political system is. Our generation deserves better," Stevie O'Hanlon, communications director for the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said in a statement. "The debate also made it undeniable that a Trump presidency would be a climate catastrophe. When Trump was asked if he would address the climate crisis, he ignored the question completely—because he can't answer it. He has promised oil and gas CEOs that he will expedite drilling permits, hasten fracked gas pipeline approvals, and release 'vast stores' of oil and gas on public lands. In return, they're bankrolling his campaign."
"Biden touted achievements that young people fought hard and long to win: the Civilian Climate Corps and the Inflation Reduction Act. Like in 2020, we will fight like hell to defeat Donald Trump so we have the political conditions to end the fossil fuel era and win a Green New Deal," O'Hanlon added. "But President Biden and the Democratic establishment's choices have made an election against a convicted felon dangerously tight. Young people have offered Democrats the vision, energy, and policy on which to beat Donald Trump. They have turned away from it. If there is to be any chance of beating Trump this November, they must listen to young voters."
"Biden is manifestly not up to the task of combating Trump's lies, vitriol, and neofascism—nor is he capable of articulating a coherent progressive vision capable of galvanizing voters this fall."
It's far from clear that mounting calls for Biden to end his reelection campaign and clear the way for a viable replacement will move Democratic leaders or the White House, which has been adamant that the president will be on the ballot in November even as Democratic voters indicate they would prefer someone else as their nominee.
A Gallup survey released ahead of Thursday's debate showed that just 42% of Democratic voters are pleased with Biden as the nominee and a majority want a different candidate.
But Robert Costa of CBS News reported in the debate's aftermath that unnamed sources close to Biden said there is "zero chance" the president "steps away from running."
Newsom, one of the Democrats most commonly floated as a potential alternative to Biden, came to the president's defense Thursday night, urging the party to rally behind the incumbent.
"You don't turn your back because of one performance," Newsom said. "What kind of party does that?"
Alex Wagner presses Gov. Gavin Newsom on questions about whether Biden should step down.
Newsom: “You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”
“This president has delivered. We need to deliver for him at this moment.” pic.twitter.com/J5G9XGNYWn
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 28, 2024
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also stood by the president, telling reporters on Friday that he should not drop out of the race even as one unnamed House Democrat—described as an "outspoken defender" of Biden—toldPolitico's Jonathan Martin that Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) should seriously consider a "combined effort" to convince the incumbent to step aside.
"The movement to convince Biden to not run is real," the lawmaker said.
However, Martin noted, "many top party officials" feel that "Biden can't be persuaded let alone pressured."
"One Democratic governor called the debate 'beyond bad,' but said it was 'too late' to nominate a new standard bearer," Martin reported.
But analysts argued Thursday's debacle solidified the case that a Biden candidacy is untenable—and could gift Trump and his far-right allies another four years in power, which they're planning to use to unleash a massive assault on reproductive rights, public education, immigrants, environmental regulations, and more.
"I'm not saying that Joe Biden is going to lose the presidential election because of tonight's debate. The race is still ridiculously too close to call at this point," saidZeteo's Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host. "But it's not looking good. And what I am saying is that you're deluded if you believe Joe Biden, at this stage of his life, is the best person Democrats have to offer against Donald Trump, against a fascist."
"Small-d American democracy, if it is to survive, needs Democrats—big-d Democrats—to put their big boy pants on and get their act together," Hasan added.
I have spent months, both on MSNBC and at Zeteo, refusing to obsess over Biden’s age and fitness for office. But no longer. Not after tonight’s car crash of a ‘debate’.
It’s time for Biden to step aside. The Democrats need to find a new nominee. https://t.co/20UUcW06TK pic.twitter.com/oMtRbED3Bx
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 28, 2024
After acknowledging that "a comatose Joe Biden would make a better president than Donald Trump," Vox's Eric Levitz wrote Thursday that even though "there is no way for the Democratic Party to deny Biden the nomination at this point," party leaders could "personally lobby the president to step aside and endorse his preferred successor, preempting the hazards of a contested Democratic convention in late August."
"Waiting months to anoint a presumptive nominee would be highly risky. Rallying around Biden's handpicked heir now would be much less so," Levitz added. "The president's policy positions and governing record matter more than his current skills as a rhetorician. But precisely because of how much is substantively at stake in this election, Democrats cannot afford to wager it on American voters changing their minds and deciding that Biden isn't too old for his job after watching him struggle to remember the topics of his own sentences."
RootsAction, a progressive group that urged Biden in late 2022 not to run for reelection and has been calling on the president to step aside for more than a year, said in a statement that Thursday night underscored the incumbent's "severe liabilities as a candidate."
"Biden is manifestly not up to the task of combating Trump's lies, vitriol, and neofascism—nor is he capable of articulating a coherent progressive vision capable of galvanizing voters this fall," the group said. "There is still time before the party convention to decide on a different nominee for the party. Democratic leaders must finally heed the clear preference of Democratic voters and reconsider their backing of Biden's candidacy."
"We need a swift intervention to make Biden voluntarily a one-term president so a Democratic nominee can be up to the job of defeating Trump," RootsAction added. "The stakes could not be higher for the future of the United States, and the world."
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