Democrats breaking ranks?

As Joe Biden’s last year winds down, Democrats are seeing something with which only Republicans have dealt before. Dissension is growing in the ranks. Thus far the dissension involves two news-making Democrats who each have made isolated pronouncements at odds with national Party leadership. But now those two are becoming more consistent in their dissension. More remarkably still, those two had reputations for being radical leftists when they ran for office. Cold, hard reality – the reality not only of campaigning but also of governance – might be affecting them.

Most Democrats are still bitter

Thus far this dissension in the ranks seems limited. Former Democrats who have openly defected to the Republican Party are not at issue here. After all, Donald Trump himself was a Democrat once – before he hijacked the Republican brand. Trump then converted, or recruited, three prominent Democrats or Democrat supporters: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Elon Musk, and Joe Rogan. That prompted Van Jones at CNN to accuse his Party’s leadership of chasing those three away.

Separately, Mark Halperin suggested the primary way the Democrats have held together is by creating a cadre of bullies. Those bullies, he says, prevented any meaningful primary challenges to Joe Biden, until his disastrous debate performance. That, he says, “cost Democrats the White House.”

He’s likely correct – and, like all bullies, certain prominent Democrats are still bitter – and they’re saying breathtakingly silly things. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) hinted that Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth, deserved to be murdered in front of his hotel. Not because the murder might have been a “hit” on him by reason of insider trading or some scam he might have been running on the side – but because insurance executives have incurred the rage of the people.

Violence is never the answer … but you can only push people so far, and then they start to take matters into their own hands.

Sen. @ewarren on the UnitedHealth murderer: "Violence is never the answer. This guy gets a trial who’s allegedly killed the CEO of UnitedHealth. But you can only push people so far. And then they start to take matters into their own hands.” pic.twitter.com/xgtBPqDE0Y— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 11, 2024

A has-been journalist can say things like that – but it ill befits a Senator to say them. Then we have Anita Dunn, a long-time adviser to President Biden, denying the weaponization of the Justice Department.

Anita Dunn: “When you look at this Attorney General [Merrick Garland], this Department of Justice…the one thing you can really not say about it is that it operated as a political arm of the White House. I can attest to that.”

Jason Miller (her Trump counterpart): “Respectfully, Anita did you miss the last four years? Did you miss the illegal raid on Mar-a-Lago?”

🚨Watch @JasonMiller call out Biden Advisor Anita Dunn for ridiculously claiming the Biden DOJ wasn’t politicized to go after President Trump:

Dunn: “When you look at this Attorney General [Merrick Garland], this Department of Justice…the one thing you can really not say about… pic.twitter.com/rzHXsI6iH9— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) December 11, 2024

Dissension – from being sensible

But some Democrats, like Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City, have to govern. Yesterday Adams met with Trump’s ICE Director-designate, Tom Homan. Mr. Homan must have shared some sobering realities – and Mayor Adams called a press conference to share them afterward. Christina Laila of The Gateway Pundit had the greatest details.

We’re not going to be a safe haven for those who commit repeated violent crimes against innocent migrants, immigrants and long-standing New Yorkers. From what I heard from the incoming head of ICE is that we have the same desire to go after those who are committing violent acts, repeated violent acts among innocent New Yorkers and among migration asylum seekers. That’s what I heard from him. And I was pleased to hear that, because we share the same desire.

I’ve said this before, and I’m surprised the way everyone is attempting to state this is a “new coming of Eric Adams…” [New York City] can’t be a safe haven for violent individuals. Mayor Eric Adams

Mayor Eric Adams holds a press conference on his meeting with incoming Border Czar, Tom Homan.

"I've said this before, and I'm surprised the way everyone is attempting to state this is a 'new coming of Eric Adams…[New York City] can't be a safehaven for violent individuals." pic.twitter.com/VgW61Msde2— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) December 12, 2024

Among the harsh realities Homan apparently shared:

We have 500,000 children who had sponsors in this country that we can’t find. We can’t find them. We don’t know if they’re doing child labor. We don’t know if they’re doing sex crimes. We don’t know if they’re being exploited. 500,000 children. We don’t know where they are right now in this country.

JUST IN: NY Mayor Eric Adams stuns a room full of liberal reporters with a blunt reality check about open borders and their link to sex trafficking.

“We have 500,000 children who had sponsors in this country that we can’t find. We can’t find them. We don’t know if they’re doing… pic.twitter.com/U7VuRgpXKo— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) December 12, 2024

Adams ended with this dig at reporters whose sympathies always lie with the left:

I’m going to answer a few questions and then I am leaving because it’s not going to matter what I respond to anyway, you have your preconceived thoughts already.

🚨New York Mayor Adams DESTROYS the press:

"I'm going to answer a few questions and then I am leaving because it's not going to matter what I respond to anyway, you have your preconceived thoughts already."
pic.twitter.com/5ITlvj2RDj— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 12, 2024

Ouch.

As bad as that setback might be, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) arguably did worse. Until now, Democrats have given the cold shoulder to Trump’s nominees, especially Tulsi Gabbard (for Director of National Intelligence). But now Sen. Fetterman has met with Pete Hegseth, nominee for Secretary of Defense. In an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, he said:

I’m not sure why it’d be controversial to anybody if he’s the individual who could potentially be the next secretary of defense. I’m not just a senator for Pennsylvania, for my voters or Democrats, it’s for all of us.

He also said he’d received “a lot” of constituent calls asking him to meet with Trump nominees. Trump carried the State, of course, and Fetterman will have a new Republican Senate colleague. Still, Democrats almost never pay more than passing attention to their calls – but John Fetterman did. And when his fellow Party members complain, he says this:

Those individuals can vent or rant on Twitter but I’m here to have conversations, and I think I’m just doing my job.

Now that well befits a Senator.

Analysis

What explains this dissension in the ranks? To repeat, some people have to govern. In fact, Mayor Adams said, before the acquittal of Daniel Penny in the subway headlock incident, that Penny had done what New York’s Finest should have done.

John Fetterman might have noticed that his State was trending Republican earlier this year. He also is on record opposing some of the more incendiary rhetoric from his fellow Democrats. But when a Senator meets with a Presidential nominee, more than rhetoric is involved.

Heretofore, only Republicans have had to worry about dissension in their ranks. Sens. Susan Collins (RINO-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (RINO-Alaska), and former Reps. Liz Cheney (RINO-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (RINO-Ill.) are (or were) some of the booby-prize examples. Sen. Mitch McConnell (RINO-Ky.) is a worse example. He now seems to be comparing Trump to Charles A. Lindbergh, who called for isolationism in the 1930s. (He also took a flop recently and could barely walk afterward. No doubt Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., is watching, waiting to test the limits of his appointment power.)

More to the point, the last of the moderate Democrats seemed to have left the Party in the last four years. Are new moderates taking their places? Will this cause, as some influencers expect, a civil war within the Democratic Party? Stay tuned.