Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries from the House (pictured above) and Chuck Schumer from the Senate (pictured below) put aside differences to present what Schumer called a “totally united” front on Wednesday. But if you ask House Republican Tom Tiffany, Democrats are united by only one thing: their hate of Donald Trump.
Amid drooping party poll numbers, Schumer presented an alternate message in an earlier CNN interview, saying it’s his side of the aisle, not the Republicans, who are the united party as Trump’s second term reached 100 days.
“Republicans are fighting with each other within the House. Republicans are fighting with each other within the Senate and, in something that rarely happens, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate are fighting with each other,” Schumer told CNN. “Compare that to the Democrats: we’re totally united.”
To be clear, there have been differing opinions among Republicans – many of them centered on spending cuts – as the lead party in both chambers works through the budget reconciliation process to send a spending bill to the White House that would codify much of Trump’s agenda.
Meanwhile, Democrats – appearing anything but unified after Trump’s landslide victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris last November – face an approval rating of only 38%, according to a new CNN poll.
It’s about leadership, poll says
Schumer and Jeffries themselves bear much of the responsibility for the struggles facing the Democratic Party, say poll respondents. The two New Yorkers were not on the same page in mid-March when they sought to assure the public that their party's leadership was not in disarray.
Many Democrats were unhappy with Schumer for not fighting harder against a Republican spending bill that narrowly avoided a government shutdown.
Schumer sat down for a pair of national TV interviews and defended his record on ABC’s “The View,” saying: “One thing I am known to be very good at is how to win Senate seats. Winning in 2026 – in the House and Senate, which would stop Trump once and for all – is vitally important.”
Democrats' claims of unity – according to at least one GOP House member – are not to be believed. “Don’t be fooled by the so-called unified front,” Tiffany, who serves most of the northern half of Wisconsin, told Washington Watch show host Jody Hice on Wednesday. “At this point all they can do is scream that what Republicans are doing is wrong.”
Tiffany instead points to a secured southern border as one of the early highlights of Trump’s 100 days. “And once he can start removing these illegal aliens, often criminal illegal aliens, we’ll have success there,” he emphasized.
But here comes the judge …
Trump’s mass deportation plan, one of his key campaign promises, has been slowed by the judiciary, most often through Democrat-appointed federal judges at the district court level.
The Trump administration ignored verbal instructions by Washington, DC, District Court Judge James Boasberg that a plane loaded with illegal immigrants, many of them believed to have connections to violent criminal gangs, turn around mid-flight and return to the U.S.
More recently, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked parts of Trump’s executive order that would require proof of citizenship when hopeful voters register, and Judge William Orrick blocked the administration from freezing funds for sanctuary cities. Kotelly was appointed by Bill Clinton, Orrick by Barack Obama.
"Trump vs. the judges" has been an ongoing saga in the news cycle. The result is that many Americans aren’t seeing one of the great successes of the Trump administration – simple efficiency in how government agencies are now performing their jobs, Tiffany said.
“Whether it’s the Veterans Administration, IRS, whatever the case may be, we get constituent complaints. Well, those things rarely got resolved during the Biden administration,” Tiffany said.
Times are changing. Now agency heads are demanding that agency personnel work diligently to resolve issues as they become known. Agency leadership is saying to its workforce “you’re going to act on the concerns that are being brought to you by the American people,” Tiffany said.
Democrats' plan coming soon
Jeffries, the lead Democrat in the House, said his party over the next 100 days will lay out a “blueprint for a better America.” An affordable economy, climate, and protecting Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid from cuts will be among Democrats’ priorities, he said.
His remarks did not mention the LGBTQ movement or transgender rights. Those remarks came from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to the crowd at a Democratic fundraiser in New Hampshire Sunday.
Pritzker doubled down on Democrats’ support for the trans agenda. “Those same do-nothing Democrats want to blame our losses on our defense of black people, of trans kids, of immigrants – instead of their own lack of guts and gumption,” he said.
He joked about conservatives who fear the normalization of the LGBTQ agenda.
“I have to laugh when I hear the right wing carry on about the dangers of exposing kids to trans people or same-sex couples. Because I’m living proof that introducing your kids to the gay agenda might result in them growing up to be governor,” Pritzker said.
He added, “I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am. We are. We will.”
Democrats haven’t learned from their losses in November, Tiffany argued. “Political leaders like Governor Pritzker are taking their states down the toilet,” he said, pointing to reports of Americans moving from blue to red states.
“It’s not hard to find the states that are failing. People are fleeing; they're making a decision with their feet – and that's why they're headed to the successful states that are largely run by red-state governors,” Tiffany concluded.
