Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.V., delivered a parting shot to the Democratic Party, calling his former party "toxic" as he prepares to retire from office at the end of the congressional term.
Manchin, who was a lifelong Democrat before registering as an Independent earlier this year, blasted the Democratic Party in an interview with CNN’s "Inside Politics with Manu Raju" that aired on Sunday.
"The D-brand has been so maligned from the standpoint of, it’s just, it’s toxic," Manchin said, adding that he left the party because he no longer considered himself a Democrat "in the form of what Democratic Party has turned itself into."
Manchin blamed progressive lawmakers for shifting the party’s brand away from issues such as ensuring good jobs and good pay for Americans to instead focus more on sensitive social issues like transgender rights and telling Americans what they can or cannot do.
"They have basically expanded upon thinking, ‘Well, we want to protect you there, but we’re going to tell you how you should live your life from that far on,’" Manchin said of the Democratic Party.
He claimed the progressives in Washington, D.C., are out of touch with Americans, stating, "This country is not going left."
But Manchin did not only criticize Democrats, pointing the finger at Republican lawmakers who he claimed are "too extreme" and lack common sense on the issue of guns.
"I’m not going to ban you from buying it," Manchin said of guns, "but you’re going to have to show some responsibility."
"So the Democrats go too far, want to ban," Manchin said. "The Republican says, ‘Oh, let the good times roll. Let anybody have anything they want.’ Just some commonsense things there."
Manchin, who has often been a crucial swing vote, was known for his moderate approach and bipartisan work on national issues in the Senate.
Manchin served 14 years in the Senate. His political career began as a state delegate in the early 1980s, before being elected as a state senator until the late 90s. Manchin served as Secretary of State for four years, and then was elected as governor of West Virginia in 2005.
Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he plans to double the number of state jobs that will no longer require a college degree — joining states like Minnesota, Virginia and Pennsylvania, which have already dropped degree requirements for most public jobs.
Newsom unveiled his Master Plan for Career Education framework on Monday, which included eliminating the college degree requirement for 30,000 jobs in the state.
The Democratic governor plans to double the number by removing the requirement for an additional 30,000 in the coming years in an overall effort to "help Californians translate their skills and knowledge into real progress toward a degree or career."
"Every Californian deserves the opportunity to build real-life skills and pursue a fulfilling career — including those that don’t require college degrees," Newsom said in a statement. "California is working to ensure that every person has what they need to get a well-paying, long-lasting job so we can build an economy for the future that supports all families."
The framework also includes plans to establish "Career Passports" for citizens that will create a digital record of their skills and abilities for job applications.
Veterans will also see new benefits, with the plan allowing them to gain college credit for their military experience.
Reducing the emphasis on needing a college degree to secure a career has been endorsed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump. Musk recently stated that he believes "the value of a college education is somewhat overweighted."
"Too many people spend four years, accumulate a ton of debt and often don't have useful skills that they can apply afterwards. I have a lot of respect for people who work with their hands, and we need electricians and plumbers and carpenters and that's a lot more important than having incremental political science majors," Musk said while on the campaign trail for Trump. "I think we should not have this idea that in order to be successful you need a four-year college degree."
Newsom's framework was released just months after a report found that the majority of students at for-profit colleges never graduate, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The report found that only 36% of students graduate in four years at California State University, while 62% graduate within six years.
The elimination of college degree requirements for state jobs has received bipartisan support in recent years.
Maryland, under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, became the first state in the nation to eliminate degree requirements for most state jobs in 2022, setting the stage for more than a dozen other states to follow in his footsteps with similar orders.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued an executive order in 2023 to establish that 92% of state government jobs would no longer require a college degree, a move that received praise from Republican state lawmakers who said the decision was "a step in the right direction."
Additionally, the 2024 GOP platform framework, released during the presidential campaign cycle, stated that "Republicans will support the creation of additional, drastically more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year college degree."
A top contender in the race to become the next Democratic National Committee chair acknowledged after last month's elections that "we're getting our butts kicked right now."
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, says the marching order for his party is "win the U.S. House back, win the Senate back and, of course, win the presidency in ’28."
But Martin, considered a DNC frontrunner, emphasized that equally important is "making sure that we are growing our party and contesting in every public policy arena throughout this nation, from school boards to the mayorships, to country boards, to city councils to state legislative races."
Democrats suffered major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections as former President Trump recaptured the White House and the GOP flipped the Senate and held onto its fragile majority in the House.
The aggressive strategy of President-elect Trump's campaign and Republicans up and down the ballot of appearances on podcasts and other non-traditional media is credited, in part, for the gains they made in winning the support of working class, minority, younger and low-propensity voters.
Current DNC chair Jaime Harrison is not seeking another four-year term steering the national party committee. The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet Feb. 1 at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.
Another top contender is Ben Wikler, who has steered the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin since 2019 and, like Martin, is well known by the voting members.
Also considered competitive is Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration the past year,
Also running are James Skoufis, a New York state senator who launched his long shot bid last month, and former Department of Homeland Security official Nate Snyder, who announced his uphill climb for chair last week.
Fox News Digital interviewed Martin, Wikler and O'Malley ahead of last week's meeting of the DNC's executive committee, which was the first time the panel had gathered since November's election.
Martin said if he becomes chair, the first thing he would do is "figure out a plan to win. And we need to start writing that plan, making sure we’re looking underneath the hood. How much money do we have at the party? What are the contracts? What contracts do we need to get rid of? And, frankly, bringing all of our stakeholder groups together, that’s the biggest thing.
"We don’t have a lot of time," Martin emphasized. "There’s elections bearing down on us in New Jersey and Virginia in just 10 months, so we’ve got a lot of work to do."
Martin has repeatedly pledged he'll "contest every race in every zip code."
"It absolutely is realistic," he told Fox News Digital. "I’m not going to take a scarcity mindset when we just spent close to $2 billion on a presidential election. … There’s enough resources around for the DNC to actually start contesting races up and down the ballot."
Even though he says he's won commitments of support from nearly half the voting members he needs to become the chair, Martin said, "I’m not taking anything for granted. I certainly am proud of the support I’ve seen so far. But I’ve got a long ways to go."
But, he added, "I’m clearly ahead right now. I like where we’re at."
Wikler, in his interview, highlighted that "the goal for the Democratic Party should not be to win 47 seats or 51 seats in the Senate. We should be aiming bigger because we know the values of the Democratic Party around a country that works for working people and around freedom and dignity and respect for everyone. Those are deeply shared values across the country.
"I think a lot of change is needed in order to grow stronger, get our message to everyone and enlist support from everyone who thinks that this country should work for folks who have to work to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table."
Wikler said the party needs to show voters "that we're fighting for them against those who would try to rig the economy for those at the very top and deliver that message in places where people aren't paying attention to politics much, but they know what they're struggling with in their own lives.
"That means communicating in clear language in a way that shows people that we see them. And with our actions showing that we're fighting for them to bring costs down and make sure that working people have a fair shot in this country," he added.
Wikler pointed to the success of Democrats in his home state, a crucial battleground, as a reason he'll be competitive in the chair race.
He said the party is "united in its desire to win elections. And, in Wisconsin, we have some of the most closely fought, intense elections. We've had to learn to deal with everything that Republican candidates and campaigns throw our way. And I think the energy around it, figuring out how to get stronger and bigger and reach more people in more places, will give me a path to winning the DNC chair's race and then working to unite this party to fight and win up and down the ballot."
O'Malley, who turns 62 next month, is the oldest of the candidates running for chair.
He said he's running for DNC chair "because I love my country, and the only way we're going to save the Republic is if the Democratic Party gets itself battle ready as quickly as possible."
"I have had the honor to prove my chops as an operational turnaround leader at every level of government, including recently at Social Security for the president," he touted.
Pointing to his past steering the Democratic Governors Association, he noted, "I'm the only candidate that's actually chaired a national committee — the Democratic governors — and I'm the only candidate that's actually run for office and been elected to office, city council, mayor, governor. And we need to recruit people all across the ballot in order to bring our party back."
O'Malley said that job No. 1 if he's elected chair "is to bring us together and to understand what we did well and what we did poorly the last time. But, most importantly, we've got to focus on registering more people as Democrats. We've got to return to the economic message that has always been the core of this party, that we've veered away from in many people's eyes in this last election. And we need to defend voting rights everywhere, not just in swing states."
Asked if he's got a shot against Martin and Wikler, who sit on the committee and are much better known by the voting members, O'Malley said, "I believe I do. I've found a whole lot of people that realize this is no longer a kind of caretaker election for DNC chair, but it's a change maker. And, for that reason, I'm finding doors blowing open all across the country."
Vice President Kamala Harris tried to encourage Democratic staffers facing layoffs from the DNC on Sunday, telling them that their "spirit will not be defeated."
Harris made the comments during the DNC's holiday celebration in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. She spoke alongside President Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the event, which played host to staffers who were let go from the DNC without severance packages after the election.
"This holiday season, like any time of the year, let us really be conscious of all the blessings we have. Let us celebrate the blessings we have; let us celebrate and advance the blessings we have yet to create," Harris said. "And let us always remember our country is worth fighting for, and our spirit will not be defeated."
"And hear me when I say this, that spirit that fuels the countless hours and days and months of work that you have put into this, that spirit. It can never be defeated. Our spirit is not defeated. We are not defeated. Let's be clear about that. We are strong. We are clear about why we are in this. And because you're here right now. I say again, thank you. Because not only are you clear about all of that, you're willing to put in the hard work and that work must continue," she said.
Biden took the stage after Harris and defended the pair's legacy as they prepare to leave office. He argued that the country is in a "resoundingly" better position today than when he and Harris entered the White House.
"The one thing I've always believed about public service, and especially about the presidency, is the importance of asking yourself, have we left the country in better shape than we found it? Today, I can say with every fiber of my being, of all my heart, the answer to that question is a resounding yes," he said.
He went on to encourage staffers to "stay engaged" in the years ahead.
"You're not going anywhere, kid," Biden said of Harris. "Because we're not gonna let you."
Some DNC staffers had expressed frustration at the post-election layoffs, which are relatively common in Washington, D.C. The DNC union objected to the lack of severance packages and other benefits when the layoffs were announced in late November.
"We find it very cruel that DNC management is trying to claim that layoffs are just part of the job," a DNC union member told Mother Jones. "And we feel strongly that losing an election has not absolved the organization of its responsibility to treat its workers with basic dignity."
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison does not plan to seek re-election to his post, leaving a pool of would-be leaders to vie for the top position.
The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet at the beginning of February at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.
The list of candidates seeking to replace Harrison includes Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor, Ben Wikler, who has led the Democratic Party in Wisconsin for five years, and Minnesota Democrats chair Ken Martin.
Florida state Rep. Susan Valdés, who was just re-elected as a Democrat last month, announced that she's switching her party affiliation to Republican.
"I will not waste my final two years in the Florida Legislature being ignored in a caucus whose leadership expects me to ignore the needs of my community," the newly-minted Republican said in a statement.
"Effective immediately, I will change my registration from a Democrat to Republican and will join the Republican Conference in the Florida House of Representatives," she noted. "I know that I won't agree with my fellow Republican House members on every issue, but I know that in their caucus, I will be welcomed and treated with respect."
Her switch comes on the heels of a bid for the role of Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee chair.
"While it remains disturbingly unclear whether she was entertaining the switch to become a Republican even as she was running to lead the local Party, ultimately it is her constituents in District 64 who have the most reason to be upset and betrayed," Hillsborough County Democratic Party chair Vanessa Lester said in a statement shared on the Hillsborough County Democratic Party's Facebook page. "They voted for a Democrat to fight for them and ended up with a political opportunist who abandoned them."
Sunshine State Gov. Ron DeSantis welcomed the congresswoman to the Republican Party, declaring in a post on X, "Welcome to the GOP, Rep. Valdes! Congrats to Speaker @Daniel_PerezFL on the biggest Republican majority in the history of the Florida House!" the governor added.
Valdés hailed former President Jimmy Carter as "My hero!" in a post on X earlier this year while wishing the 100-year-old Democrat a happy birthday.
"I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris," the former president told his son Chip, according to grandson Jason Carter, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported earlier this year.
In an October post on Facebook, Valdés wrote, "I pray you can see her inauguration, President Jimmy Carter."
Prominent Democratic National Committee (DNC) powerhouse Lindy Li is facing fierce backlash from members of her own party after she expressed support for President-elect Donald Trump’s defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth.
She said her position touched off a level of intraparty vitriol that took her off guard, to the point where some are calling for her to leave the Democratic Party altogether.
Li, a Democrat strategist, served as both a surrogate for Vice President Harris and a member of the DNC’s national fundraising committee, a membership for which she noted requires raising "millions of dollars" on behalf of Democrat candidates. She also appeared nearly every day on the air to stump for Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.
Li said that what's happening to her underscores the party’s broader posture of finger-pointing and internal blame even after its wide election losses.
So, it was in this context that she appeared on NewsNation's "Morning in America" show over the weekend and offered what she described as "restrained support" for Hegseth, Li told Fox News Digital on Monday. The two share Princeton University as their alma mater and both appeared at the same time on "Fox & Friends" this fall.
Asked about his nomination on Sunday, Li told host Markie Martin, "I actually think he’s a pretty good guy."
"Maybe you’re looking for someone to oppose the nomination, but I actually have personal interactions with [Hegseth]," she said, adding that, "because I’ve been on Fox and Friends – I’ve met Pete, he’s my fellow Princetonian."
Li repeatedly declined to answer questions about Hegseth's path to confirmation amid allegations of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct. Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing.
Still, the torrent of criticism continued, ranging from party leaders to public voices within the party who urged her on social media and in text messages reviewed by Fox News Digital to resign or be "fired," to which Li scoffed because she, in her current capacity, is not on any DNC payroll. (As a Democrat strategist and fundraiser, she has raised millions of dollars for both President Biden and Harris in their respective presidential campaigns, and she appeared on TV countless times. Her family has also donated buildings, including a Philadelphia-area church.)
Still, Li said, the criticism caused her to question, to some degree, her allegiance to the very party for which she's raised millions of dollars during the 2024 election cycle alone.
"I'm not just some random donor. I am one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Asian-American fundraiser on the Democratic side," she said.
Instead, Li said she sees the fallout over the fairly innocuous comment as a "microcosm of what is wrong with the Democratic Party" by "permitting no dissent, no criticism."
She said this bolsters the contention held by certain factions within the Democratic Party: the leadership has learned the wrong lessons after their losses in the 2024 House, Senate and presidential races. Instead of engaging in an open dialogue with the public about their missteps, they have become more resolute on intraparty blame and finger-pointing.
Li described a "vindictive" effort by some leadership to discount her support and the millions she has raised on behalf of their party.
She also took aim at some Democrat leaders’ decisions to reinforce the idea of identity politics, a strategy embraced most prominently by outgoing Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.
Harrison, whose leadership role ends in February, has sharply dismissed critics within the party who have urged them to take a different path forward after their resounding losses in 2024.
He also used a speech last week to push back on the notion that Democrats need to abandon "identity politics," despite criticism that embracing these issues may have prompted their losses in key swing states.
Li said she and others think that’s part of the problem.
"Harrison is asking us to double down on identity politics. And I think that's a counterproductive strategy," Li said in the interview.
"It’s just insane," she said. "If you want an explanation for why they lost, this is it," Li added, taking aim at what she described as the Democratic Party's "purity tests" and the "purging" of Democrats regarded as out of step or failing to toe the party line.
In the meantime, Li said she is not facing a shortage of options as she weighs what a future role in the Democratic Party could look like, or if she even wants to stay with it.
"I think I'm too big to fully exile from the party," Li said of her contributions to the DNC. "The leadership knows that."
"People on Trump's team have already reached out to me to see if I'd be willing to switch," Li added. "So, I'm not an orphan, you know? And I know people are actively trying to recruit me."
President Biden's administration has filled up the Federal Register with more pages of regulations than any other president in history, breaking President Barack Obama's record.
As of last week, on Dec. 3, the Biden administration set a new federal record for the most Federal Register pages filled in a single year – 96,088. The number puts the administration on pace to fill more than 100,000 pages by the end of its term.
The record was previously held by Obama, who, in the final year of his second term, filled 95,894 pages.
The Federal Register, which is published by the National Archives and Records Administration and overseen by the Office of the Federal Register, is a daily publication of new and amended federal regulations.
"Federal Register page counts are a highly imperfect gauge of regulatory burden. Biden’s milestone, though, still underscores the expanding scope of federal intervention," said Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., fellow at the Washington-based nonprofit the Competitive Enterprise Institute. "The record-setting 2024 Federal Register provides a stark reminder of the scale of the regulatory state, and it ain’t even done yet."
During the final year of President-elect Trump's first term in office, the Federal Register saw its fourth-largest number of pages filled. However, Crews said that number was likely inflated by efforts to eliminate rules that require agencies to issue new ones, as well as emergency COVID-19 pandemic measures. Meanwhile, during Trump's first year in office, 2017, there were fewer pages added to the Federal Register than anyone since Bill Clinton in 1993, Crews pointed out.
Shortly after entering the Oval Office in 2017, Trump issued Executive Order 13771, which initiated a new federal rulemaking process requiring that for every single regulation added by the Trump administration, two must be taken away. The result of this was net cost savings throughout Trump's first term, Crews said.
Trump has signaled that he will expand his deregulation efforts during his second term, pledging to erase 10 regulations for every new one added.
Machalagh Carr, director of the Center for Legal Action at the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News Digital that with the incoming Trump administration "a new day is dawning and help is on the way."
"For the last four years, [the Biden administration] has done their very best to strangle American free enterprise with a blizzard of unworkable regulations and mandates," Carr said. "The political appointees calling the shots in the Biden administration have a hostile view of the innovators and companies that power our economy and believe that government knows best."
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for both Biden and Trump, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The White House is firing back and defending President Biden and his administration from intra-party criticism that he has not done enough to combat President-elect Donald Trump and help lay a solid foundation for the Democratic Party's future once he leaves the Oval Office.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital that Biden "is making every day of his term count," pointing to his work to boost domestic manufacturing, fight climate change, lower drug costs, protect communities from gun violence, improve infrastructure and get judicial nominees confirmed.
"He is leading by example for the sake of American democracy, honoring his campaign promise to respect the will of the voters and provide an orderly transition," Bates added.
The complaints against Biden from within his own party have ranged from disappointment over a lack of push back on Trump's various nominees to disappointment over the president's failure to implement additional protections for undocumented migrants amid concern Trump will deport them.
Another criticism Biden has faced during his lame-duck presidency has suggested a lack of press conferences and interaction with the media. During nearly two weeks worth of time abroad since the election, during which members of the press traveled side-by-side with Biden, the outgoing president spoke just seven words to them, according to Politico.
Bates also contested such criticisms that Biden has not engaged with the press.
"He has held multiple gaggles with reporters since the election, during which he has criticized President-elect Trump’s agenda – including across-the-board tariffs that will force American families to pay higher prices for everyday necessities," Bates said. "He is also actively engaging with a wide range of leaders about the future of the Democratic Party."
While the criticism against Biden has been sharp, some Democratic lawmakers have come to Biden's defense.
Democrat Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Biden ally, added he thinks that Biden has left his party and the American public with "a lot for us to learn from going forward."
"There’s sort of a tradition of former presidents not getting too involved in it, and he’s transitioning into that," added Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md. "So I think he has to be careful."
As they gather for their annual winter meeting, the nation's Democratic governors say they're the "best path forward" for a party now out of power in the nation's capital, and the "last line of defense" as President-elect Trump returns to the White House.
The Democrats lost the White House and the Senate majority, and failed to flip the House, in last month's elections.
But Democrats held the line in this year's gubernatorial elections, and continue to hold 23 of the 50 governors' offices.
The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) highlights their governors "represent more than half of the U.S. population, including in five of the seven biggest presidential battlegrounds (AZ, MI, NC, PA and WI) as well as deep red states like Kansas and Kentucky."
"At a time when the Democratic Party is looking for the path back to victory, Democratic governors continue to win by earning the trust of voters by meeting them where they are on their biggest everyday challenges," DGA executive director Meghan Meehan-Draper highlighted.
And she emphasized that "who your governor is has never mattered more – and with Republicans in control of the federal government, there will be even higher stakes and more resources necessary for the 38 gubernatorial elections in 2025 and 2026, including the hard work already underway to flip Virginia and hold New Jersey in 2025."
Democratic governors and state attorneys general played a high-profile role in pushing back via political and legal battles during Trump's first term in the White House – and several are ready to reprise that role.
Two of the most high-profile Democratic governors, California's Gavin Newsom and Illinois' JB Pritzker, have already begun to "Trump-proof" their solidly blue states.
And Pritzker, along with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, last month launched a group called Governors Safeguarding Democracy, in order to resist the incoming Trump administration.
The rival Republican Governors Association criticized the Democrats' strategy.
"The fact that Americans resoundingly rejected the Democratic Party agenda just one month ago, and yet Democrats continue to believe running against an agenda of lower costs, more safety, and more freedom is their winning message shows just how wholly out of touch they are with the country," RGA communications director Courtney Alexander argued.
But longtime Democratic strategist Maria Cardona pointed to her party's governors as a "focus of progress and protection" with Trump returning to the White House.
But Cardona, a Democratic National Committee member, said the governors will also "be the ones that are going to show Americans the path forward."
"Democratic governors have always been innovative and creative and know what works both to push back against MAGA extremism, as well as bring people together with commonsense bi-partisanship.," Cardona added. "The country needs that smart, tested, measured yet passionate approach now more than ever."
Some of the governors will also be some of the early high-profile potential contenders for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
Newsom, Pritzker, Polis, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, are among the names often mentioned as possible White House hopefuls in the next presidential election.
The Nevada Democratic Party is imploring its national party leaders to focus more on "diverse, working-class states" when it considers how to "rebuild" after this year's election.
A Thursday press release from the state-level party in Nevada called on national party leaders and potential candidates under consideration to be the next Democratic National Committee Chair to "elevate" working-class states to the front of the presidential primary calendar for 2028. The press release cited a process that has typically started with states that are "overwhelmingly college-educated, white, or less competitive."
"If Democrats want to win back working class voters and rebuild our broad coalition of voters of color, we should elevate the most working class and most diverse battleground state in the nation to be the first presidential preference primary for the 2028 cycle," Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Daniele Monroe-Moreno said.
Selecting the Democratic Party's calendar for presidential primaries is a main responsibility of the Democratic National Committee. Nevada has historically been a caucus state, but in 2008, the state's Democratic Party ushered in a new era of state-run primaries, which the group said in its press release led to increased voter turnout.
Nevada has historically been among the first few states to hold either a presidential primary or caucus during the last several elections, according to Federal Elections Commission data, but it has been preceded by states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Last month, after it became apparent that Democrats would not come out of the election with the upper hand, Democratic lawmakers,labor leaders,students and political pundits all came out with their own forensic analysis of what happened, with many suggesting the party needed to refocus on winning back working-class voters.
"There is more to lose than there is to gain politically from pandering to a far left that is more representative of Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok than it is of the real world," Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., said following the election. "The working class is not buying the ivory-towered nonsense that the far left is selling."
Meanwhile, Brent Booker, the general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, said that the party has not "fully embraced, and hasn’t for decades, really, working-class people."
"We have to deconstruct and reconstruct the Democratic Party if they’re going to be the party of working people," Booker added.
In response to similar claims from progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., arguing that Democrats have lost the working class, former Democratic National Committee Chair Jamie Harrison called the idea "straight-up BS."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic National Committee for comment on this story but did not hear back in time for publication.
A progressive political media group founded by former Obama administration staffers is selling "ANTIFA" onesies for babies and other anti-fascist-themed clothing for both kids and adults.
The items can be bought via a digital merchandise store run by Crooked Media, which was co-founded in 2017 by former Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor. Oftentimes referred to as the "Obama bros," the three communications professionals co-host "Pod Save America," one of the most listened-to political podcasts in the nation, per Apple Podcasts U.S. rankings.
In addition to the "ANTIFA" onesie for babies, a T-shirt with the same bold "ANTIFA" text written across it can be purchased for toddlers via the Crooked Media merch store. An "ANTIFA Dad Hat" is also for sale.
"ANTIFA" is a common term used to refer to far-left "anti-fascists" who were at the forefront of the George Floyd protests during the summer of 2020. Many of those protests devolved into violent riots, even resulting in the deaths of dozens of people and billions of dollars in property damage because of the unrest. Following that summer, ANTIFA continued to deploy violent tactics.
A spokesperson for Crooked Media told Fox News Digital that the clothes it has listed on its website "are not a joke," but also quipped that "all toddlers are antifa until their souls are broken by capitalism."
In addition to the "ANTIFA"-branded clothing for babies and toddlers, the Crooked Media merch store also carries other items, such as a onesie that reads "WOKE MOB" across the front and another that simply reads "BIRTH CONTROL" in big, bold lettering. One onesie for sale displays the word "ILLUMINATI" on the front. They come in T-shirts, too.
Crooked Media produces a number of podcasts, but "POD SAVE AMERICA" gets most of the group's attention with nearly 1,000 episodes recorded, far surpassing any of its other programs, according to Crooked's website.
Fox News reporter Brooke Singman contributed to this story.
Anthony J. Brindisi, a former Democratic member of Congress who serves on the New York State Court of Claims in Utica, will serve as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
The Democratic-led U.S. Senate voted 50-49 in favor of Brindisi, who was tapped by President Biden in July. He will succeed the nation’s oldest active district court judge, 87-year-old David Hurd.
Brandisi is the first former member of Congress to join the federal bench in over two decades, overcoming Republican opposition to positions he took on legislation supporting immigrants and LGBTQ rights.
He was the target of various lines of questioning in which he attempted to frame himself as a jurist rather than a politician.
"On the bench, are you a politician or a judge?" Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn asked him during a hearing last month.
"I'm a judge, senator," Brindisi responded.
Brandisi, 46, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. He served one term. After losing his seat to Republican challenger Claudia Tenney in the 2020 election, he returned to his former law firm, Utica-based Brindisi, Murad & Brindisi Pearlman, before becoming a state court judge starting in 2022.
President-elect Trump accused Democrats of attempting to "stack the Courts" with radical appointees and urged Republicans to "Show Up and Hold the Line."
"No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
The last time a former member of Congress joined the bench was in 2002, when the Senate confirmed now-Senior U.S. District Judge Bill Martini in New Jersey after he earlier served as a Republican member of the House.
Brindisi said the role of a judge was different from his past lawmaking work and that he wanted parties to feel he was a "fair and impartial judge," Reuters reports.
FOX News' Hayley Chi-Sing, Chris Pandolfo, Jake Gibosn, Kelly Phares, Julia Johnson and Reuters contributed to this report.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., called out President Biden for going back on his word and pardoning his son, Hunter, on Wednesday, calling the move "disappointing."
Aguilar, who chairs the House Democratic caucus, said he understood Biden's decision "as a father," but argued the pardon did not uphold the rule of law. Rep. Ted Lieu, who joined Aguilar in Wednesday's press conference, did not comment on the pardon.
"As a father, I understand it, and I get it. But as someone who has spent a lot of time at this podium talking about the importance of respecting the rule of law, it's disappointing," Aguilar said.
"The president gave his word and said publicly that he wasn't going to give a pardon and then he did, so that part is disappointing. I believed him when he said he wasn't," he said.
Aguilar joins a number of Democrats who have openly criticized Biden's pardon. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that he also was "disappointed" with Biden's decision.
"With everything the president and his family have been through, I completely understand the instinct to protect Hunter, but I took the president at his word," Newsom told Politico, adding that he "can't support the decision."
In a statement announcing the pardon, Biden took aim at what he described as a politically motivated investigation.
"No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong," the president wrote.
Biden had vowed multiple times that he would not intervene in his son's case, first in June when his son was convicted on three felony firearm charges, and then in September after Hunter pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion.
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said this summer. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
The candidate considered the frontrunner in the race to chair the Democratic National Committee is proposing a "massive narrative and branding project" to boost the party's image in the wake of last month's election losses.
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs, on Tuesday unveiled a 10-point memo titled "A New DNC Framework."
Martin's memo calls on Democrats to "show up in nontraditional and uncomfortable media spaces on a regular basis, increase outreach to local messengers and trusted validators, and create our own platforms for authentic engagement."
Democrats suffered major setbacks up and down the ballot in the 2024 elections, as former President Trump recaptured the White House, and the GOP flipped the Senate and held onto their fragile majority in the House.
The Trump campaign and Republicans' aggressive strategy of appearances on podcasts and other non-traditional media is credited, in part, for the gains they made in winning the support of working class, minority, younger and low-propensity voters.
Martin, who is courting state Democratic Party officials this week as they huddle in Phoenix, Arizona, is also calling for themes others in the party have pushed, including competing in all 57 states and territories.
"If we’re going to be a national party, we need to compete everywhere," Martin emphasizes.
He also calls for year-round organizing in every county in the country, contesting races all the way down the ballot, and energizing youth mobilization.
Martin lamented that "the majority of Americans now believe the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor, and the Democratic Party is the party of the wealthy and the elites. It’s a damning indictment on our party brand."
And he urged that "we must be willing to dig deep and recenter the Democratic agenda to unite families across race, age, background, and class."
Martin unveiled his plan on the same day that DNC chair Jaime Harrison released a memo highlighting that the party's down-ballot victories last month offer a road map to greater electoral success in the future.
Harrison is not seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee. The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet at the beginning of February at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.
Martin appears to be the early frontrunner in the race, and his campaign says he has the backing of at least 100 DNC voting members, which is nearly half of what a candidate needs to secure the chair.
Also running and considered competitive is Ben Wikler, who's chaired the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin for five years and is well known by the voting members.
"Today, the country we love needs the Democratic Party to be stronger. To unite. To fight. And to win," Wikler emphasized on Sunday in a video as he launched his bid.
A party insider who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News that "the DNC insiders/establishment have significant influence over this membership, so the race will be very close."
Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration the past year, jumped into the race last week, a day before Martin.
Also running are New York state Sen. James Skoufis and former U.S. Senate candidate from Maryland Robert Houton.
The field of five DNC chair candidates is expected to grow.
As Fox News and other news organizations reported last month, Rahm Emanuel, the ambassador to Japan, has been quietly reaching out to DNC committee members as he contemplates a bid. Emanuel is a former two-term Chicago mayor who earlier served as White House chief of staff in President Obama's administration and as a member of Congress.
Also eyeing the chair are former New York State assembly member Michael Blake, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who describes himself as "non-college-educated Mexican redneck."
A DNC voting member granted anonymity to speak more freely told Fox News, "I'm open to talking to whomever is interested in this, to listen to their vision and plan, and listen to people's different takes on what we need to do."
"I think the race is wide open," the member added.
Senate Democrats held a closed-door election Tuesday morning to name who would fill their top leadership posts for the next two years, most notably filling the No. 3 position held by a retiring longtime lawmaker.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was unanimously re-elected to serve as Democratic leader and chair of the conference next year, per a Senate Democratic leadership source, holding on to the top position in the chamber among his Democratic colleagues.
"I am honored and humbled to be chosen by my colleagues to continue leading Senate Democrats during this crucial period for our country," Schumer said in a statement following Tuesday's election. "We have a lot of work ahead – in the Senate and as a country – and in this upcoming Congress, our caucus will continue to fight for what’s best for America’s working class."
Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will also remain in the party's No. 2 position as Democratic minority whip next cycle. However, the No. 3 spot in the senate will have new representation.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has served in the No. 3 position of policy and communications committee chair for several years, but the position was up for grabs after the senator did not seek re-election this cycle.
Democratic senators selected Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to assume the No. 3 position after being tapped to chair the steering and policy committee.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., will also take on a leadership role in the next Congress, being elevated on Tuesday to chair the strategic communications committee, the fourth-highest ranking position in the Senate minority.
Other notable nominations include Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as vice chair of the conference, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., as vice chair of the conference, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as chair of outreach, and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., as senate Democratic conference secretary.
Republican senators recently held their own leadership election for next year when they will have the majority in the chamber, electing Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to take over the role of Senate majority leader.
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith had a simple message for Democrats following the party’s defeat on Election Day to President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Smith said on the latest episode of "The Stephen A. Smith Show" on Monday that Democrats were in the driver’s seat after Trump blew the moment in the weeks after an assassination attempt, but they failed to capitalize.
"It wasn’t just about him winning," Smith said of Trump. "Y’all lost big time because people were calling y’all hypocrites, and they were calling y’all full of it, and they were saying y’all can’t be trusted any more than you say he can’t be trusted. Then, you go out and you prove them right. You’ve got nothing.
"If you’re the Democratic Party, here’s my advice to you – shut up. Wait for him to get pushed into office or to accept inauguration on Jan. 20, and he becomes the 47th president of the United State officially, wait for then and then judge him accordingly. Stop talking about the past.
"The American people have already told you to kick rocks. They don’t care what you have to say anymore as Democrats. You have been squashed, obliterated. Nobody in the White House, you don’t have the House, you don’t have the Senate, and you’re gonna walk around talk about how, ‘Oh, he didn’t get 50% of the vote.’ Well you didn’t either! You lost!
"And every time you bring up something now and every time something comes up, you look even worse. Donald Trump is walking into office looking good … because of you, because of how y’all chose to act, how y’all chose to conduct yourself, how you leaned onto the fringes and got a bit extreme and engaged in culture and identity politics and wokeness and all of this other stuff. You look bad."
He added that President Biden then "put his foot in his mouth yet again" with his reasoning for pardoning his son, Hunter, and there was "no wonder why a healthy portion of America is done with y’all."
The talking-head also teed off on the party over its spending habits during the election season. He took issue with the party’s payments to Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and billionaire Oprah Winfrey’s production company for a campaign event as they were going to vote for Harris anyway, showing zero indication of switching their support.
The Harris campaign kicked off in earnest at the beginning of August, after Biden dropped out of the race amid mounting concern over his mental acuity and age. The Harris campaign raised about $1.4 billion across her few months as the Democratic nominee but allegedly faces $20 million in debt, sources told Politico.
"Kamala Harris, her campaign and the Democrats are another matter," Smith said. "Do you have any idea how pathetic y’all look? That you were literally paying people who supported you before they sat down with you and gave you the interview. What would be the incentive to that? Could that be so they didn’t ask you certain questions, and they did ask you other questions? And that you knew the interviews were gonna be all nice and fluffy and cozy inside, was that it? Because it makes no sense."
The field of contenders bidding to steer the Democratic National Committee in the wake of the party's very disappointing results in last month's elections keeps growing.
Three more candidates over the weekend announced their intentions to run in a wide-open DNC chair race that appears to have a frontrunner.
Ben Wikler, who's chaired the state Democratic Party in battleground Wisconsin for five years, launched his campaign Sunday in a video.
"Today, the country we love needs the Democratic Party to be stronger. To unite. To fight. And to win," Wikler emphasized.
Also Sunday, former Senate candidate from Maryland Robert Houton announced his bid, saying in a letter to DNC members that he aimed to "lead and grow our Democratic party to champion electoral and transformative, legacy victories in 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, and beyond."
A day earlier, New York state Sen. James Skoufis took to social media to announce his long-shot, outsider bid for DNC chair, in the race to succeed Jaime Harrison, who is not seeking a second four-year term early next year in the wake of major setbacks for the Democrats up and down the 2024 ballot.
"Voters have spoken, and we need to listen, not lecture. We need to be strong fighters again," he said. "I may be an outsider, but I know how to win."
And Skoufis vowed to "throw out the DNC's stale, Beltway-centered playbook so that we rebuild, stop ceding ground to Republicans and start winning again – everywhere."
Martin O'Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration the past year, and Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who also leads the association of state Democratic Party chairs, jumped into the race last week.
"When I took over @MinnesotaDFL, we were in debt and disarray. But we brought people together, built a winning coalition, and delivered results. I’m ready to get to work to rebuild our party," Martin said in a social media post announcing his run.
In an accompanying video, Martin emphasized, "If you're looking for a creature of D.C., that's not me. But I do know how the DNC works and how it isn't working."
O'Malley, in launching his bid, highlighted that "we must connect our Party with the most important place in America – the kitchen table of every family’s home. Jobs, Opportunity, and Economic Security for all. Getting things done. Hope. A 50 state strategy. Now."
The field of five DNC chair candidates is expected to grow, as the Democrats try to rebound after losing the White House and Senate in the 2024 elections and failing to recapture the House of Representatives.
As Fox News and other news organizations reported last month, Rahm Emanuel, the ambassador to Japan, has been quietly reaching out to DNC committee members as he contemplates a bid. Emanuel is a former two-term Chicago mayor who earlier served as White House chief of staff in President Obama's administration and as a member of Congress,
Also eyeing the chair are former New York State assembly member Michael Blake, Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who describes himself as "non-college-educated Mexican redneck."
The next chair will be chosen by the roughly 450 voting members of the national party committee when they meet at the beginning of February at National Harbor in Maryland for the DNC's winter meeting.
Martin appears to be the early frontrunner. A DNC insider who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely said Martin has over 150 endorsements from voting members.
But Wikler, who is also well-known by the DNC membership, is also considered a frontrunner. "The DNC insiders/establishment have significant influence over this membership, so the race will be very close," the party insider argued.
"I'm open to talking to whomever is interested in this, to listen to their vision and plan, and listen to people's different takes on what we need to do," said a DNC voting member granted anonymity to speak more freely.
The member said, "I think the race is wide open."
"We have to go back to 50-state strategy," the member said. "We definitely have to figure out how to speak to a broader swath of working-class voters, and when I say working-class voters, I don't just mean White working-class, I mean Latino, African American, voters of colors… we have to figure out how to talk to all of those."
And the member added that in order to compete with the Republicans, the DNC also has "to drastically expand and not just go a mile wide but a mile deep on the different platforms of communication."
Washington governor-elect Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, announced Monday that he is creating a subcommittee in his transition team that will have the sole purpose of fighting Project 2025.
The transition team expects Project 2025 to be pushed by the Trump Administration despite President-elect Trump's efforts during his campaign to distance himself from the controversial proposal.
Ferguson's committee will be co-chaired by Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates CEO Jennifer Allen and King County Councilmember Jorge L. Barón, who is also a former executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Fox 13 reported.
"We are preparing in case President Trump attacks Washingtonians' core freedoms," Ferguson said, according to the outlet. "We will keep Washington moving forward no matter what happens at the federal level."
Project 2025 is a controversial initiative organized by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation that was authored by a number of conservatives, including some former Trump administration officials.
The initiative offered right-wing policy recommendations for Trump's second term, including replacing civil service employees with Trump loyalists, abolishing the Department of Education, criminalizing pornography, eliminating DEI programs, cutting funding for Medicaid and Medicare, rejecting abortion as health care, carrying out mass deportations and infusing the government with Christian values.
During his campaign, Trump had sought to distance himself from the initiative, which has been criticized as being an authoritarian and Christian nationalist plan that would undermine civil liberties, saying he knew nothing about it, that parts of it are "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal" and that its backers are on the "radical right."
Former Trump officials also told POLITICO ahead of Election Day that people involved in Project 2025 would be blacklisted from his administration.
But Trump has selected authors and contributors for Project 2025 to serve in his next administration, including Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Tom Homan as "border czar," Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy and Brendan Carr as chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
"This is a critical time in our nation as we look to the possibility of our communities being under attack from many different directions," Allen said, according to Fox 13. "I'm honored to serve on Governor-elect Ferguson’s transition team and to co-chair this subcommittee to support his leadership in our state and country in championing and safeguarding reproductive rights and all of the rights of Washingtonians."
Barón said he is "honored to assist Governor-elect Ferguson in his transition into this new role and to co-chair this important subcommittee," Fox 13 reported.
"As an immigrant and as the proud parent of a trans daughter, I am particularly grateful that the Governor-elect is committed to protecting all Washington state residents, and especially those communities at greatest risk of having their rights attacked by the incoming federal administration," Barón continued.
Ferguson's office said the subcommittee will establish policy priorities for his first 100 days in office, according to Fox 13, although specific policy proposals have not been released.
A new poll finds that Democrats are feeling glum about their party's prospects after Republican President-elect Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
Democratic pessimism about the party's future is at its highest point in eight years, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Republicans, on the other hand, are riding high and have the most optimistic outlook about their party recorded since the 2016 election, Trump's last presidential victory.
For the first time since 2016, more Americans say the GOP, not the Democratic Party, represents the interests of "people like them" very or somewhat well, 50% to 43%.
Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, winning 312 Electoral College votes to her 226 votes and sweeping all the battleground states. Republicans also flipped control of the Senate and managed to cling to their majority in the House of Representatives, as well — guaranteeing full control of the federal government with a favorable 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
Short of a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate, there is not much more Republicans could ask for in terms of power to enact their agenda at the federal level. So Democrats, understandably, are not thrilled about their party.
A majority of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents, 51%, still say they are optimistic about the party's future. However, 49% are pessimistic — an increase of 20 percentage points from how Democrats felt after the 2022 midterm election's mixed results, according to the Pew Research Center. The number of pessimistic Democrats is also about 10 percentage points higher than when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016.
Those who are under age 50 and those further to the left than conservative and moderate Democrats tended to be more pessimistic.
Republicans, however, are far more optimistic about their party today (86%) than they were after the 2022 midterms (65%) and Trump's 2016 victory (79%).
The Pew Research Center noted the partisan gap in Republican and Democratic views of their respective party's futures is at 35 percentage points, the largest of any recent election.
Additionally, more Americans now say the GOP best represents their interests than those who say it is the Democratic Party who does so. About half of Americans say Republicans best represent "people like them" compared to 43% who say so about Democrats — a shift from recent years when the Democratic Party was believed to be more representative of "people like them."
That swing of opinion is almost entirely among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 85% of whom now say the GOP represents them well or somewhat well. That is a 14-point gain from a previous Pew Research Center survey in June 2023.
Most Democrats, 72%, still say their party represents them at least somewhat well. A small minority on both sides say their respective parties do not represent their interests well.
