Democratic stars begin to emerge

Most people seem to agree: as Donald Trump and a crew of 25-year-old Elon Musk groupies continue to take over and dismantle federal government agencies, Democrats in Congress have been moving too slowly and have struggled to build any cohesive counter-strategy.

Democratic lawmakers are being bombarded with calls from angry constituents, urging them to do something, anything, to resist our new MAGA overlords. "I can't recall ever receiving this many calls,” one Democrat told Axios this week. “People are disgusted with what's going on, and they want us to fight back."

While I have been very critical of Hill Democrats’ lack of resistance to Trump, this week, a few bright spots have begun to emerge. I wanted to highlight a few of those here that you may have missed:

Senate Democratic stars go live with Pod Save America

Last night, Democrats in the U.S. Senate gathered nine of their best communicators in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office to broadcast an unprecedented round robin of interviews with Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, and Jon Lovett.

One after the other, Senators including Elizabeth Warren, Chris Murphy, Brian Schatz, Amy Klobuchar, Mark Warner, Andy Kim, Jeff Merkley, Elissa Slotkin, and Sheldon Whitehouse went live with the Pod Bros and explained what the Trump administration was doing. They did so with some pretty authentic banter and they started to back all the talk with action. As the interviews played out, Senate Democrats took shifts waging an all-night blockade of one of Trump’s most controversial nominees.

Engaging non-traditional media

The Pod Save America moment is an illustration of a larger, positive trend among several leading Democrats in Washington. More and more, I’m seeing Senators and members of Congress engage with non-traditional media outlets and online creators in a way they didn’t just a few years ago. For example, both Elizabeth Warren and Brian Schatz have been on Adam Mockler’s YouTube show to lambast Republicans and speak directly to grassroots Democrats in the past two weeks. Adam Schiff gave a interview to Keith Edwards about Kash Patel. Cory Booker sat down with David Pakman in a conversation he posted on Instagram, and Chris Murphy recorded a brief chat with Jack Cocchiarella.

These are just a few quick, recent examples, but its a sign that elected officials and their staff have realized that they can and should bypass the traditional media gatekeepers to get their messages out.

Bringing the heat outside

Members of Congress have also been showing up to rallies in Washington to speak out forcefully against Trump’s extreme actions. Sometimes, it hasn’t gone well, but there have been a few breakout moments.

Reps. Maxwell Frost and Jasmine Crockett showed up with many of their committee colleagues to a protest outside of the Treasury Department, and generally were able to push out some good content that reached a lot of people. Their demands, however, were a little murky. Outside USAID, newly-elected Sen. Andy Kim was able to make an impassioned defense of the agency and share his story of working there years ago, and Sen. Chris Murphy has been bringing the heat all week long.

Even with these few bright spots, Democrats have their work cut out for them. Most Americans likely aren’t paying attention to many of these media appearances or stunts, and the majority of Democrats in Congress are not talented communicators or experts on how to talk to people online. Still, for those of us who are pretty down on Democrats’ ability to fight back in the new Trump era, these first steps should be encouraging.

The Bulwark makes it rain

According to a new story published today in New York Magazine, The Bulwark, a political news startup founded by several prominent “Never Trump” Republicans, is finding solid financial footing. The buzzy media company is now raking in over $10 million a year from paid subscriptions, podcast advertising, and YouTube monetization…

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