Liberals on social media seethed in reaction to Democratic lawmakers reportedly admitting behind the scenes that former President Trump isn’t a “threat to democracy” as their party loudly claims.
New York Times columnist Ezra Klein appeared on The Bulwark Podcast Tuesday and revealed what “top Democrats” have told him off the record as they panic over whether they should support or abandon President Biden on their ticket.
“People are weighing this set of things. Like, ‘It would be quite unpleasant for me personally to come out against the president as an elected official in the Democratic Party,’ and weighing what will happen if Donald Trump wins, and saying, in a revealed preference way, ‘I can live with Donald Trump winning,’” Klein said. “And I’ve heard people say that to me off the record, to be fair-”
“Really?” podcast host Tim Miller reacted.
“I’ve had top Democrats say to me, basically, say something like, ‘I don’t know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy are acting the way they are. But the reason I’m acting the way I am is because I don’t think that,'” Klein continued.
“Who the f— is this?” an angered Miller exclaimed. “Out your sources, Ezra!”
“I find it maddening, but I do find it consistent,” Klein responded.
Klein later told Miller, “I think you have to at some point say, whatever these Democrats are saying in public, they’re more resigned and more willing to just be the resistance to a Trump presidency than a lot of their public-facing rhetoric would suggest.”
“You have a calm voice, but you’re skyrocketing my f—ing blood pressure right now,” Miller said. “Ezra, I’m just, like, so f—ing mad.”
Miller shared the “GALLING exchange” on X, sparking anger among other anti-Trump voices.
“Absolutely f—ing enraging,” former Obama speechwriter and Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau reacted.
“Correction: I was not being much too easy on the Democrats. I was being much, much, much too easy on them,” New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait said.
Progressive activist Aaron Regunberg posted, “This is a story with actual, legitimate villains. Here they are. May they rot in hell.”
“If a party is filled with this many useless people, there is no reason for it to exist,” Vox writer Sean Illing said.
Washington Post assignment editor Damir Marusic remarked, “It’s so quaint, the idealism. It’s as if people living in a city devoted to politics don’t understand politics at all.”