Democrats will hold a pair of soul-searching meetings in Baltimore this week as the party looks for an approach to President Donald Trump that can unite supporters still bruised by his upset victory last fall.
House Democrats open their annual retreat Wednesday at the Inner Harbor, a closed-door gathering Democratic leaders will use to craft messaging and strategy for the months ahead. Later this week, 10 candidates running to lead the Democratic National Committee will take part in a public forum to discuss their visions for the party’s future.
The meetings this year take on added significance for Democrats — a party that is leaderless and still reeling from the November election — as they grapple with Trump’s whirlwind of executive orders and a running battle over his Cabinet nominees.
Democrats remain divided over whether to embrace steadfast, united opposition, the approach the tea party-driven Republican Party took with President Barack Obama, or to look for common ground.
"Donald Trump is so unpredictable," said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat. "I don’t think anybody thought he would move as fast as he’s moving with as much as he’s doing."
Senate Republicans passed a party-line rebuke Tuesday night of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for a speech opposing attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, striking down her words for impugning the Alabama senator’s character.
In an extraordinarily rare move, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,…
Senate Republicans passed a party-line rebuke Tuesday night of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for a speech opposing attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, striking down her words for impugning the Alabama senator’s character.
In an extraordinarily rare move, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,…
Trump shows little sign of taking his foot off the gas or bowing to pressure from Capitol Hill. Calling the executive order to temporarily ban travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries "common sense," the president said Tuesday he is prepared to fight the legal battle over its implementation at the Supreme Court.
"We’re going to take it through the system," said Trump, who also reiterated his promise to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. "It’s very important for the country."
Trump dismissed efforts by Senate Democrats to hold up his Cabinet appointments as "all politics."
Puzder’s confirmation hearing has been delayed four times over eight weeks.
Puzder’s confirmation hearing has been delayed four times over eight weeks.
Betsy DeVos’ confirmation marks the first time a vice president’s tie-breaking vote was needed to confirm a presidential Cabinet appointment. Feb. 7, 2017.
Betsy DeVos’ confirmation marks the first time a vice president’s tie-breaking vote was needed to confirm a presidential Cabinet appointment. Feb. 7, 2017.
Rep. Andy Harris was asked Wednesday whether he thinks Democrats are treating Trump any differently than Republicans treated Obama during his first weeks in office.
The Baltimore County Republican paused before responding.
"Republicans gave President Obama a hard time, disagreed with some of his policies," Harris said. "Very clearly, the opposite is true with the shoe being on the other foot now."
Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Government and Oversight Reform Committee, has straddled the tactical debate within the party — he has criticized the new president while also reaching out.
He condemned Trump for not shedding his ownership of his real estate empire and was among the first lawmakers standing at Baltimore’s airport with protesters upset with Trump’s temporary travel ban.
But Cummings has also pursued a meeting with the new president to discuss prescription drug prices, an issue on which Cummings believes Democrats can work with the White House. That meeting may now take place as early as next week, Cummings said.
"My position has been, let me dialogue with him about the things that we may have agreement on and, in the course of that conversation, bring up things like voting rights," he said.
Still, efforts to tread carefully are running into large crowds of protesters and organizers eager to pull the party to the left.
Protesters have quickened the outrage metabolism among members of Congress and encouraged disruptive tactics, including boycotts of Senate hearings on Trump’s nominees.
The Senate has confirmed seven of Trump’s top-level nominees. On Tuesday the chamber barely approved Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after all Democrats and two Republicans voted against her. Vice President Mike Pence was brought in to break a tie and put DeVos over the line.
Democrats have come under immense pressure from some within the party to block Trump’s picks at all costs.
"Among the grass roots, there’s a feeling that we should be in ‘nothin’ left to lose’ mode, throwing everything we can at the president," said Christy Setzer, a Democratic strategist who advised for Al Gore, Chris Dodd and Howard Dean.
"If there’s not perceived intensity in our opposition to Trump," she said, "you’ll see a ‘throw the bums out’ mentality."
The debate over tactics is clearly on display in the nomination of Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s choice to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Some Democrats have pressed their party’s senators to filibuster the conservative appeals court judge — a move that would likely backfire and further minimize the power of the filibuster.
It is also not clear that Senate Democrats have the votes to adopt a more radical strategy. As it looks toward the 2018 midterm election, 10 Democratic incumbents are running for re-election in states that Trump won.
"The fight that Democrats picked on DeVos was a good fight," said Pat Murray, a former executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party. "Senate Democrats are going to have opportunities to elevate certain people in certain moments to make a point."
But given Gorsuch’s credentials and background, Murray said, it’s likely he would ordinarily have had an easy path to confirmation.
"Gorsuch is tough" for Democrats, he said.
House Democrats have frequently held their annual retreat in Baltimore, a heavily Democratic city in a state that gave Hillary Clinton one of her largest margins in the country. Outside the policy discussions, lawmakers are set to hear from NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and comedian Chelsea Handler.
On Saturday, Sen. Ben Cardin, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy are among a long list of Democrats set to speak at the party’s public forum. But the main event will be an afternoon discussion among candidates running to chair the national party, including former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez of Maryland and Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota.
Both candidates are progressive. Perez is considered by some to be more of an insider, having served in Obama’s administration.
Former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, meanwhile, faces three challengers in her bid to be re-elected as the party’s secretary.
Though Democrats lost the White House and failed to make major gains in Congress, the party has plenty to work with. A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed that 51 percent of voters disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job — an unusually high percentage so early in a presidency. Forty-two percent approve.
Just over half of the respondents said they oppose Trump’s travel restrictions.
Rep. Anthony G. Brown, one of two Democratic lawmakers elected from Maryland in November, said he hopes the caucus comes out of the retreat this week with a coherent message.
"When Democrats write that chapter, we write on several pages at a time," said Brown, of Prince George’s County. "Hopefully by the time we get to the end of the chapter, there’s a cohesive story to be told."
The Washington bureau contributed to this article.
john.fritze@baltsun.com
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