Democrats are finding themselves mired in infighting and schoolyard sniping just as President Trump begins his new term.
Former first lady Jill Biden and Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) daughter have taken shots at each other amid sore feelings over the pressure campaign that led former President Biden to drop his White House reelection bid.
At the same time, there are hurt feelings in former Vice President Kamala Harris’s orbit after Biden said he could have defeated Trump. Harris felt slighted, an ally to the former vice president said, and her aides took it personally.
“Who the hell does he think he is?” one Harris aide told The Hill, recalling the sentiment around the Harris bubble about Biden’s comments. “We’re in this mess because of him.”
Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members have sparked intraparty criticism.
And in Congress, Democrats are battling in the House and Senate over their strategies after their campaign messaging fell flat with the public. Centrists and liberals are pointing fingers on issues such as immigration and transgender rights.
One longtime Democratic operative said the party is “spiraling” in the wake of Trump’s victory.
“In my political lifetime, this is as bad as it’s been for Democrats,” the operative conceded.
Democratic strategist Tim Hogan also acknowledged the friction.
“Now is the time when the fine line between soul-searching and finger-pointing begins to blur,” Hogan said. “Yes, everyone is frustrated, and rightfully so.
“No one likes being alive for their own autopsy,” he added.
The current mood in the Democratic Party differs from that seen under Trump’s first administration in 2017, when Democrats presented a unified front in opposition to Trump. Back then, the Democratic Party’s message centered on opposing the president at all costs. The so-called resistance movement was born as a result.
Now, after their bruising defeat in November, Democrats are divided on their approach to Trump.
There is a willingness by some to find common ground with the president, as some Democrats have said there were lessons to be learned in November.
“Fighting Trump on every turn has not proven to be successful,” said Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, echoing what other Democrats have said about their rationale for a new approach with the GOP president.
But other Democrats say they are drawing a red line with Trump.
Some Democratic lawmakers — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — didn’t even attend his inauguration ceremony.
“Let me make myself clear: I don’t celebrate rapists,” the congresswoman said in a video posted on her Instagram page.
Simmons, who worked for Harris until 2023, said he’s not concerned about Democrats’ differing opinions right now.
“It’s an inflection point,” he said of the place in which Democrats find themselves. “People have a right to hurt feelings. These are human beings and we don’t factor that in enough in our analysis.”
The coming months are expected to present even more challenges as the party starts to rebuild with a new party chair who will set out to take a different approach than the one used in the past few election cycles.
Democrats will also have to find candidates who can help them win back the House in 2026 — a priority for Democrats who have pledged to stop Trump in his final two years in office.
And for the first time in several cycles, the party will contend with a wide-open field for the next White House race in 2028, which is sure to present further discord and discomfort.
“It’s going to take a moment for Democrats to develop a coherent strategy to push back on the Trump administration,” said Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
Mollineau said Democrats need to bide their time instead of acting impulsively and to focus on unified, alternative ways of engaging Trump and Republicans: “It can’t just be an opposition play,” he said.
“Some rallying cries will become obvious, and others will emerge as the details and repercussions of his agenda come to light,” Mollineau added. “I know there are many in the party who don’t want to wait, but patience and intentionality might be a better play than just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.”
But, for now, even as Trump has returned to the Oval Office with a robust vision and a clear mandate, tension lingers among Democrats. This week, after witnessing the president take the oath of office and then issue a flurry of executive orders, a second operative fired arrows at his own colleagues.
“I’m just so mad at our party,” the operative said. “We suck. How could we let this happen again?”
