Heading into Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening congressional address, Democrats had a decision to make: Go wild, or stick with the old playbook? They chose both, writes Free Beacon founding editor Matthew Continetti, putting the party’s split personality on full display.
There were the “ideologically fevered” and “performatively outraged” House Democrats who experienced a “mass psychotic breakdown” during Trump’s address—”the political equivalent of the airline steward who, after his after his flight had landed, announced to the cabin that he was quitting his job, guzzled two beers, opened the emergency exit, and slid to the tarmac on the evacuation chute.”
Then there was Michigan’s freshman senator, Elissa Slotkin, who delivered the party’s official rebuttal. “She was modest and patriotic. She complained about rising prices. She zinged Elon Musk. She warned that Trump would cut taxes for billionaires while ‘going after your health care.’ She invoked American exceptionalism.” In other words, she “followed the old playbook, written in the jagged scrawl of a Ragin’ Cajun: It’s the economy, stupid. Change, not more of the same. And don’t forget health care.”
“To resolve their identity crisis, national Democrats will have to integrate their split personalities into a coherent whole: a renewed sense of purpose as the party that believes the federal government can be an engine of social mobility,” writes Continetti. “Democrats will have to stop merely talking about normalcy and secure borders and middle-class concerns, and act like a normal party once again. Based on this week’s antics, they need more than a new messenger. They need an exorcism.”
READ MORE: The Democrats’ Identity Crisis
When student radicals stormed campus buildings at Barnard, Columbia University usually issuesstatements distancing itself from the mayhem. That’ll be tough this week given that several of the students arrested for occupying Barnard’s library on Wednesday are Columbia students.
That’s according to our Jessica Costescu, who unmasked nine individuals arrested for storming Millstein Library. Four of them are Columbia students, one is from Barnard. Another attends Columbia affiliate Union Theological Seminary. The other three appear unaffiliated with either institution.
Of particular interest among the arrestees is Gabrielle Wimer, a medical student at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons who, according to a since-deleted LinkedIn, is “passionate about global health and human rights.” She’s the college’s Class of 2025 president and the programming coordinator for Columbia’s Human Rights and Asylum Clinic.
Another is a Columbia senior, Hannah Puelle. The Columbia Undergraduate Law Review listed her as its publisher before removing her bio. A campus source told us she also serves as a resident adviser in John Jay Hall, a freshman dorm.
READ MORE: Meet the Columbia Radicals Arrested for Storming a Barnard Building
The first episode of Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, came out on Thursday. In it, Newsom agreed with conservative activist Charlie Kirk on transgender athletes, saying, “I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. So that’s easy to call out—the unfairness of that. I revere sports, and so the issue of fairness is completely legit.”
It’s a familiar argument for Newsom, not because he has a history of making it, but because he has a history of attacking it. When Caitlyn Jenner made a nearly identical comment years earlier—”This is a question of fairness, that’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school”—Newsom’s office pushed back.
California, an unnamed spokesman for Newsom said in 2021, allows students to “participate in activities consistent with their gender identity” and “isn’t going backwards on these issues.” Newsom, the spokesman added, wants to ensure “trans Californians are fully acknowledged in accordance with their gender identity while interacting with public services.”
Alas, Newsom now wants to be president, and the American people are broadly opposed to the liberal policies that have defined his time as head of the Golden State. Expect to hear a lot more of these 180s on Newsom’s future episodes.
Away from the Beacon:
- Marco Rubio’s State Department is using AI to review “tens of thousands of student visa holders’ social media accounts” and flag the Hamas sympathizers for deportation. Great job, tech overlords.
- Hakeem Jeffries is “very unhappy” with House Democrats who engaged in petty protests during Donald Trump’s congressional address, calling them into his office for a Thursday morning “come to Jesus meeting.” A “source familiar” told Axios that Jeffries wasn’t talking to the members “like they are children” but rather “helping them understand why their strategy is a bad idea.”
- CNN data journo Harry Enten was “truly surprised” as he read a new poll on Elon Musk’s DOGE. “Whoa,” he said. “Americans on Trump and DOGE efforts: Musk/DOGE should influence government spending and operations, 54 percent majority say they should.” Imagine that!
