I'm going to bet a lot of you watching at home right now are just a little bit fed up with Donald Trump and his actions I'm going to bet you want Democrats to do something about it now if that sounds like you and I'm just guessing here you're not alone just right now some new polling out from NBC news shows that 54% of Voters disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy that's the worst number he's ever seen dating back to his first term and a whopping 82% of Voters say the state of the economy is
either fair or poor so basically most people aren't happy but what do they want to do about it that's always the question well the poll also found that the majority of Democrats want their leaders to wake the hell up and fight back just 32% of Democrats say they want their members of Congress to make compromises with Trump while 65% say they want leaders to stick to their positions even if it means not being able to get things done in Washington now that's important to note why because it's the total opposite of where those numbers stood
back in 2017 because guess what Toto we're not in 2017 anymore things have changed but unfortunately not every Democratic leader seems to have gotten that message we saw that this week when Chuck Schumer and nine other Democrats voted with Republicans to advance Contin continuing resolution that keeps the government open through September Schumer says a government shut down would have been a worse option really you really think that I mean how much worse could it get they're already closing down agencies and firing people so worse at the end of the day no matter what reason he
may give Schumer back down from the fight that's the bottom line this wasn't about what happens on the other side of the shutdown it was the fight regarding the shutdown he waved the White Flag he handed Trump a win and Democrats are pissed just listen to this response from house Democratic leader Hakeem Jeff on Friday is it time for new leadership in the Senate next question have you lost confidence in him the fact that you guys see this so differently next question a bit of a s side step but then again folks not really Schumer's
former leadership partner Nancy Pelosi also took a swipe saying quote this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable AOC Alexandria okazi Cortez also went after Scher saying there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal and calling this a huge slap in the face and Whispers of a primary challenge uh or leadership challenge that you know as a matter of fact are getting louder so folks here is the deal bear with me for a second I think I'm having a bit of a deju I don't know about you the year is
2009 Democrats are at the peak of their powers Republicans are in retreat in a tail spin uncon confused and not knowing what to do there are signs of voter backlash everywhere the transformative agenda that's being pursued in Washington is not being accepted by the people on the ground sound familiar we saw that backlash in the polls we saw it at town halls and we saw it in Congress sounding even more familiar back then Republicans rode that wave of resistance to Historic midterm Landslide I know a little bit about that so today the question for Democrats
is this do they join the backlash lean into the resistance and fight for the frustrated voters or do they keep waving the White Flag joining me now is the host of The Bull workk podcast Tim Miller and special correspondent for Vanity Fair Molly Jung fast okay folks this is a onetwo punch on this subject so I just I actually could just sit back and just let Tim riff and Molly you know just you know clean up on Al n here but I'll get a little bit specific uh with you Tim Trump said he appreciates Schumer
and that he did the right thing does does that tell you everything you need to know about this situation right now that does tell you everything you need to know and my congressman down here Troy Carter is a Democrat uh from New Orleans sent a picture that tells you everything you need to know which was Schumer kind of like angrily pointing at Trump while Trump just smiled right from the Oval Office last week and like that's kind of where they were at that's where people are at right now Schumer folded you know he he made
a little bit of a stink uh but didn't actually get anything didn't force Trump to the negotiating table and uh you can bet Trump was smiling when he was sending that bleet and if you're the Democratic leader in the Senate and you're making Trump smile like that and you're having him congratulate you well then you made some mistakes here's the thing Michael um you know you were talking about that tea party wave in in 2010 and I think about that because I was on the other side of this token back then right and there were
times where I was you know in the more establishment on the Republican side saying come on you guys you tea party guys are going too far all right like this is too crazy you youve you've pushed us too far to the brink with these government shutdown threats and so I understand like the logic of that right that that they that you're a Democratic senator and you think that the right thing to do is prevent a shutdown and be responsible and you know understand political limitations but like we're just not in that world anymore and like
you have a and the thing that those tea party candidates got right was that you know as a politician you have an obligation to be responsible but you also have an obligation to represent the the rage and the anger of the people that have put you there and and these Democratic centers and house members have a huge base of people behind them who are pissed and their right to be pissed because Donald Trump is tearing this government apart with Elon Musk and he's doing it illegally and he's and he's firing people who don't deserve it
and he's hurting the stock market and you got to CH if you're a leader you have to channel that anger you know even if uh that means that uh you know there there's going to be some bumps along the way and there would have been some bumps if he would have fought it so I just think it was a huge misread and um and unfortunately uh you know he did not learn the lessons that that we learned living through 2010 Michael yeah no I I think that's exactly the the framing here uh Molly because you
have Schumer uh out there talking about a shutdown would be worse and I'm looking around me as I said in the opener dude you're already strip mining the federal government you got you know 60,000 people in one agency been told don't come to work I mean so how much worse could it have been well I think Tim has a really good point here right you're not a Roy you're not royalty you serve at the pleasure of the people who put you in that office and it is your job as an elected leader to reflect that
and it is I'm sorry that it's inconvenient and that it makes people uncomfortable but everywhere I go in New York I keep seeing protests I keep walking through protests so obviously people are not happy and the question is I you know I understand it makes a lot of these older members very uncomfortable but it is their job to represent their constituents and I think I I always ask myself what would a what would a Mitch McConnell have done in this situation right because I don't think Mitch McConnell would be like you're right I don't want
to cause any damage let's just keep going here right I I just feel like that would not be what Mitch McConnell would have done or nor would a Harry Reed Nancy Pelosi combo I mean we are here because we are not having the kind of leadership that reflects the party base and again Democrats have this problem they run from their base whereas Republicans are hostages to their base you know that that brings a smile to my face when I'm sitting there thinking about how uh even with in the minority Mitch McConnell still knew how to
play the game and how to get get the win uh Tim as we've seen him do so many times so with respect to that we had hakee Jeff uh the minority leader on our on our show with my colleagues Simone and Alisia on the weekend this morning and asked him about Chuck Schumer uh and let me just play a little bit of what he said we haven't had a conversation since that vote I do expect to have a convers ation with him at some point later on today look Chuck and I disagreed as it relates
to the approach and outcome relative to what we viewed as a reckless Republican spending bill at the same period of time Chuck and I agree on the overwhelming majority of issues moving forward including our effort to oppose the largest potential Medicaid cut in American history so I I I followed up to with him on that and said well the the tactics here are are the thing yeah you can all you know say the medic coverage in that fight is going to be important but you thought he had your back on this one how what makes
you think he's going to have your back on that one I mean what what do you think my friend yeah I mean I think that speak excuse me the minority leader there Jeff is in a in a tough spot right I because uh you know sound like Chuck Schumer's going to be overthrown next week as much as at least some people might wish um and so he's going to have to work with him on this fight on the on the next big fight right and and I think that there I think that hakee is right
there will be fewer Democrats in Senate I God willing I hope zero who knows maybe fedman or maybe one or two would go along with the next bill which will include the Medicaid cuts and the extension of the tax cuts um which so I understand that he's going to feel like he's going to need to fight with Schumer on that and so doesn't want to alienate him but I just I think the same message I had for Schumer I guess I kind of have for for Jeff right again like part of this is the policy
and the tactics part of this is channeling The Rage part of this is doing politics playing politics giving people something to Rally around giving people a strong talking point on what you're going to fight for and I think that that's an area where where jeffre is could improve too uh one last thing just on the Mitch McConnell thing I was just laughing here listening to Molly thinking about can you imagine Barack Obama ever sending a tweet going thank you to Mitch McConnell for folding and I really appreciate you and like you know so you just
have to recognize what world we're in and play the game by the rules that they're playing a
