Latest news with #KenMartin
Bloomberg
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Wall Street Democrats Sweat as DNC Chair Navigates Mamdani Surge
The mood was uneasy as Democratic donors gathered at a Midtown steakhouse for lunch. The night before, progressive candidate Zohran Mamdani had all but clinched the party's nomination for New York mayor — triggering fears by moderates that national Democrats might veer toward socialism. Over crispy artichokes, shrimp and salmon, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin sought to reassure them.
The Hill
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
DNC leader faces growing scrutiny amid party turmoil
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin is under pressure amid growing turmoil within the party's ranks six months into President Trump's second administration. The committee has been plagued by party infighting that has spilled out into the open in recent weeks. Last week, two influential union heads — American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders — stepped down from their posts at the committee. Meanwhile, former Vice Chair David Hogg announced he would not run for his post again amid internal disagreements with party leadership. And on top of the infighting, reports have surfaced the committee is strapped for cash amid frustration among donors. The developments have painted a picture of weakness, barring Democrats from fully uniting behind Trump. Some critics argue the issues can be traced back to Martin, but others insist it's a reflection of the Democratic ecosystem as a whole. 'Ken Martin is stepping into a really difficult situation right now, and I would say he was elected and they handed him a mop and a bucket,' said Brian Lemek, a Democratic strategist and founder and executive director of Defend the Vote. Martin assumed his position in the top role at the DNC in February after defeating then-Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler in a competitive chair's race. His election came months after the party's sweeping losses across the board in 2024. His allies note Martin hit the ground running, unveiling his 50-state strategy in April. Martin pledged the DNC would donate a baseline of $17,500 to state parties and territories, marking a $5,000-per-month increase over the committee's previous contribution. Martin has also seen a number of special election victories during his tenure, including in Iowa, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. 'The man is everywhere,' said New Jersey-based DNC member Laura Matos, noting Martin's recent trip to the state, which is holding its governor's race in November. 'New Jersey doesn't regularly get the love and the attention for the purposes of the things we have going on here,' she said. 'He kicked off canvasses when he was here.' Still, recent polling paints a picture of a deeply unsatisfied Democratic base. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday found 62 percent of Democrats said 'party leaders should be replaced.' Forty-nine percent of Democratic respondents said they were 'unsatisfied with current leadership,' while 41 percent said they disagreed with the sentiment that they were unsatisfied with leadership. And most of the coverage surrounding the committee has been dominated by intraparty fighting that has spilled out into the open, something Democratic lawmakers are cognizant of. In a post on the social platform X following Weingarten's exit earlier this week, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said he wants 'to build a party with a big tent and inclusion, not subtraction and pushing people out.' '[Weingarten] understands the need for trades schools & apprenticeships more than anyone in our party [and Hogg] the need for primary competition and generational change,' Khanna said. And earlier this month, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said on X he 'would love to see a day go by that the DNC doesn't do something embarrassing and off-message' ahead of the vote to redo Hogg and Pennsylvania state Sen. Malcolm Kenyatta's (D) vice chair elections. 'Everyone should be focused on killing the cuts to healthcare & food assistance & education. And everyone should focus on next November,' Pocan said, adding 'internal bullshit done externally is stupid.' New York state Sen. James Skoufis (D), who ran against Martin for chair earlier this year and is a member of the committee's People's Cabinet, said Hogg is at 'the nexus' of the intraparty tensions. 'There's a lot of noise being generated by a very small handful of what I'll call backbiters who have some axe to grind,' Skoufis said. Saunders and Weingarten endorsed Wikler in the party chair's race earlier this year, and both were later removed by Martin from the DNC's influential Rules and Bylaws Committee. Both cited disagreements with Martin in their letters announcing their departures. Not every member who was removed by Martin from the Rules and Bylaws Committee has taken that approach. Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones (D), who is a DNC member who was removed from the committee by Martin, said he still backs the chair. Jones argued that the internal tensions spilling out into the open only serve as a distraction for Democrats in their battle to take on Trump and Republicans. 'I think people need to separate their emotion from the work that needs to be done because the infighting that we're seeing, it's taking our focus off of the bigger picture at hand,' Jones told The Hill. 'For us to be in this moment and we're wasting our time talking about power and position when we should be talking about policy and people. That is how we're going to win elections,' he said. John Verdejo, a North Carolina-based DNC member who supports Martin, said the changes Martin brought with him to the committee are to be expected given the switch-up in leadership. 'I attribute that to real life where there's new management and when new management comes into any work situation, they want to change things up the way they see fit and that's what happened, especially in the case of the two labor presidents,' Verdejo said. 'Our problem is we're so quick, DNC members, or Democrats, really, if we want to complain, instead of complaining to the person aggrieved us, in this case Ken Martin, we're so quick to tweet it out or talk to the press about it instead of talking to the person that aggrieved us,' he continued. The DNC has also been subject to questions about its finances as it prepares for the midterms next year. The committee entered May with $18 million cash on hand, compared to the Republican National Committee, which started the month with $67.4 million in the bank. Additionally, in the first four months of 2025, only three donors gave $100,000 or more to the committee. A New York Times report published earlier this week highlighted reported concerns from Democrats about the committee's finances, but others note the smaller dollar donors should not be ignored. 'The DNC historically has too exclusively prioritized larger donors at the expense of smaller donors and that is no longer happening,' Skoufis said. On Friday, the committee announced it had raised $40 million during Martin's first four months as chair. In May, the DNC said it outpaced grassroots fundraising in May 2023 and 2024 and raised twice as much in grassroots dollars compared to May 2017. 'Powered by our grassroots community, the DNC has just set a new record for most money raised in the first four months under a new Chair — ever,' Martin said in a statement. 'What matters is winning elections, making Democrats competitive everywhere, expanding our tent, and putting our party on the right path.' Others within the DNC say the lower-than-usual numbers from larger donors are to be expected following 2024. 'Large donors made it clear that they were not going to give to the DNC until we got our act together. I think we knew that going into this,' Jones said, adding he believes donors will come back. 'But they're not going to come back if they still see a disconnect internally,' he said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats are at odds over response as Trump announces the US has entered Israel-Iran war
After nearly two years of stark divisions over the war in Gaza and support for Israel, Democrats seemed to remain at odds over policy toward Iran. Progressives demanded unified opposition before President Donald Trump announced U.S. strikes against Tehran's nuclear program but party leaders were treading more cautiously. U.S. leaders of all stripes have found common ground for two decades on the position that Iran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. The longtime U.S. foe has supported groups that have killed Americans across the Mideast and threatened to destroy Israel. But Trump's announcement Saturday that the U.S. had struck three nuclear sites could become the Democratic Party's latest schism, just as it was sharply dividing Trump's isolationist 'Make America Great Again' base from more hawkish conservatives. Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, noted that in January, Trump suggested the U.S. could 'measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.' 'Today, against his own words, the president sent bombers into Iran,' Martin said in a statement. 'Americans overwhelmingly do not want to go to war. Americans do not want to risk the safety of our troops abroad.' Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, said the U.S. entering the war in Iran 'does not make America more secure.' 'This bombing was an act of war that risks retaliation by the Iranian regime,' Welch said in a statement. While progressives in the lead-up to the military action had staked out clear opposition to Trump's potential intervention, the party leadership played the safer ground of insisting on a role for Congress before any use of force. Martin's statement took a similar tact, stating, "Americans do not want a president who bypasses our constitution and pulls us towards war without Congressional approval. Donald Trump needs to bring his case to Congress immediately.' Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine called Trump's actions, 'Horrible judgement" and said he'd 'push for all senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.' Many prominent Democrats with 2028 presidential aspirations had been silent on the Israel-Iran war, even before Trump's announcement — underscoring how politically tricky the issue can be for the party. 'They are sort of hedging their bets,' said Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served under Democratic President Barack Obama and is now a strategist on foreign policy. 'The beasts of the Democratic Party's constituencies right now are so hostile to Israel's war in Gaza that it's really difficult to come out looking like one would corroborate an unauthorized war that supports Israel without blowback.' Progressive Democrats also are using Trump's ideas and words Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., had called Trump's consideration of an attack 'a defining moment for our party.' Khanna had introduced legislation with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that called on the Republican president to 'terminate' the use of U.S. armed forces against Iran unless 'explicitly authorized' by a declaration of war from Congress. Khanna used Trump's own campaign arguments of putting American interests first when the congressman spoke to Theo Von, a comedian who has been supportive of the president and is popular in the so-called 'manosphere" of male Trump supporters. 'That's going to cost this country a lot of money that should be being spent here at home,' said Khanna, who is said to be among the many Democrats eyeing the party's 2028 primary. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination, had pointed to Trump's stated goal during his inaugural speech of being known as 'a peacemaker and a unifier.' "Supporting Netanyahu's war against Iran would be a catastrophic mistake,' Sanders said about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sanders reintroduced legislation prohibiting the use of federal money for force against Iran, insisted that U.S. military intervention would be unwise and illegal and accused Israel of striking unprovoked. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York signed on to a similar bill from Sanders in 2020, but so far was holding off this time. Some believed the party should stake out a clear anti-war stance. 'The leaders of the Democratic Party need to step up and loudly oppose war with Iran and demand a vote in Congress,' said Tommy Vietor, a former Obama aide, on X. Mainstream Democrats are cautious, while critical The staunch support from the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for Israel's war against Hamas loomed over the party's White House ticket in 2024, even with the criticism of Israel's handling of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Trump exploited the divisions to make inroads with Arab American voters and Orthodox Jews on his way back to the White House. Today, the Israel-Iran war is the latest test for a party struggling to repair its coalition before next year's midterm elections and the quick-to-follow kickoff to the 2028 presidential race. The party will look to bridge the divide between an activist base that is skeptical of foreign interventions and already critical of U.S. support for Israel and more traditional Democrats and independents who make up a sizable, if not always vocal, voting bloc. In a statement after Israel's first strikes on Iran, Schumer said Israel has a right to defend itself and 'the United States' commitment to Israel's security and defense must be ironclad as they prepare for Iran's response.' Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said 'the U.S. must continue to stand with Israel, as it has for decades, at this dangerous moment." Other Democrats have condemned Israel's strikes and accused Netanyahu of sabotaging nuclear talks with Iran. They are reminding the public that Trump withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions negotiated during the Obama administration. 'Trump created the problem,' Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., posted on X. The progressives' pushback A Pearson Institute/Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from September 2024 found that about half of Democrats said the U.S. was being 'too supportive' of Israel and about 4 in 10 said their level of support was 'about right.' Democrats were more likely than independents and Republicans to say the Israeli government had 'a lot' of responsibility for the continuation of the war between Israel and Hamas. About 6 in 10 Democrats and half of Republicans felt Iran was an adversary with whom the U.S. was in conflict. ___ Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Linley Sanders, Will Weissert and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report Adriana Gomez Licon And Thomas Beaumont, The Associated Press
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats are at odds over response as Trump announces the US has entered Israel-Iran war
After nearly two years of stark divisions over the war in Gaza and support for Israel, Democrats seemed to remain at odds over policy toward Iran. Progressives demanded unified opposition before President Donald Trump announced U.S. strikes against Tehran's nuclear program but party leaders were treading more cautiously. U.S. leaders of all stripes have found common ground for two decades on the position that Iran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. The longtime U.S. foe has supported groups that have killed Americans across the Mideast and threatened to destroy Israel. But Trump's announcement Saturday that the U.S. had struck three nuclear sites could become the Democratic Party's latest schism, just as it was sharply dividing Trump's isolationist 'Make America Great Again' base from more hawkish conservatives. Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, noted that in January, Trump suggested the U.S. could 'measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.' 'Today, against his own words, the president sent bombers into Iran,' Martin said in a statement. 'Americans overwhelmingly do not want to go to war. Americans do not want to risk the safety of our troops abroad.' Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, said the U.S. entering the war in Iran 'does not make America more secure.' 'This bombing was an act of war that risks retaliation by the Iranian regime,' Welch said in a statement. While progressives in the lead-up to the military action had staked out clear opposition to Trump's potential intervention, the party leadership played the safer ground of insisting on a role for Congress before any use of force. Martin's statement took a similar tact, stating, "Americans do not want a president who bypasses our constitution and pulls us towards war without Congressional approval. Donald Trump needs to bring his case to Congress immediately.' Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine called Trump's actions, 'Horrible judgement" and said he'd 'push for all senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.' Many prominent Democrats with 2028 presidential aspirations had been silent on the Israel-Iran war, even before Trump's announcement — underscoring how politically tricky the issue can be for the party. 'They are sort of hedging their bets,' said Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served under Democratic President Barack Obama and is now a strategist on foreign policy. 'The beasts of the Democratic Party's constituencies right now are so hostile to Israel's war in Gaza that it's really difficult to come out looking like one would corroborate an unauthorized war that supports Israel without blowback.' Progressive Democrats also are using Trump's ideas and words Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., had called Trump's consideration of an attack 'a defining moment for our party.' Khanna had introduced legislation with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., that called on the Republican president to 'terminate' the use of U.S. armed forces against Iran unless 'explicitly authorized' by a declaration of war from Congress. Khanna used Trump's own campaign arguments of putting American interests first when the congressman spoke to Theo Von, a comedian who has been supportive of the president and is popular in the so-called 'manosphere" of male Trump supporters. 'That's going to cost this country a lot of money that should be being spent here at home,' said Khanna, who is said to be among the many Democrats eyeing the party's 2028 primary. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination, had pointed to Trump's stated goal during his inaugural speech of being known as 'a peacemaker and a unifier.' "Supporting Netanyahu's war against Iran would be a catastrophic mistake,' Sanders said about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sanders reintroduced legislation prohibiting the use of federal money for force against Iran, insisted that U.S. military intervention would be unwise and illegal and accused Israel of striking unprovoked. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York signed on to a similar bill from Sanders in 2020, but so far was holding off this time. Some believed the party should stake out a clear anti-war stance. 'The leaders of the Democratic Party need to step up and loudly oppose war with Iran and demand a vote in Congress,' said Tommy Vietor, a former Obama aide, on X. Mainstream Democrats are cautious, while critical The staunch support from the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for Israel's war against Hamas loomed over the party's White House ticket in 2024, even with the criticism of Israel's handling of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Trump exploited the divisions to make inroads with Arab American voters and Orthodox Jews on his way back to the White House. Today, the Israel-Iran war is the latest test for a party struggling to repair its coalition before next year's midterm elections and the quick-to-follow kickoff to the 2028 presidential race. The party will look to bridge the divide between an activist base that is skeptical of foreign interventions and already critical of U.S. support for Israel and more traditional Democrats and independents who make up a sizable, if not always vocal, voting bloc. In a statement after Israel's first strikes on Iran, Schumer said Israel has a right to defend itself and 'the United States' commitment to Israel's security and defense must be ironclad as they prepare for Iran's response.' Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said 'the U.S. must continue to stand with Israel, as it has for decades, at this dangerous moment." Other Democrats have condemned Israel's strikes and accused Netanyahu of sabotaging nuclear talks with Iran. They are reminding the public that Trump withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear agreement that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions negotiated during the Obama administration. 'Trump created the problem,' Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., posted on X. The progressives' pushback A Pearson Institute/Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from September 2024 found that about half of Democrats said the U.S. was being 'too supportive' of Israel and about 4 in 10 said their level of support was 'about right.' Democrats were more likely than independents and Republicans to say the Israeli government had 'a lot' of responsibility for the continuation of the war between Israel and Hamas. About 6 in 10 Democrats and half of Republicans felt Iran was an adversary with whom the U.S. was in conflict. ___ Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Linley Sanders, Will Weissert and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report Adriana Gomez Licon And Thomas Beaumont, The Associated Press
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
These are the Democrats who've been arrested, detained or charged under Trump
Several Democrats have either been arrested, detained or charged under the Trump administration due to the White House's crackdown on illegal immigration. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin has condemned their treatment, arguing lawmakers are being assaulted without reason. 'Elected officials are being arrested for doing their jobs,' Martin wrote in a Wednesday statement on social platform X. 'Once again, the Trump administration is silencing people who disagree with them in broad daylight.' Here are Democrats who have been recently apprehended by law enforcement: Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents handcuffed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a candidate for mayor, outside an immigration court Tuesday for impeding law enforcement officers. Lander was escorting a defendant at immigration court while urging ICE agents to present a judicial warrant issued for the individual's arrest. 'I'm not obstructing. I'm standing here in this hallway asking for a judicial warrant,' Lander said while being handcuffed, as recorded in a video posted on X by his wife. 'You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens,' Lander told them. He was swiftly rushed on to an elevator with law enforcement. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said at a follow-up news conference he was later released and that all charges were dropped. However, Democrats rushed to condemn consecutive arrests of their party members in recent months. 'The aggressive targeting of Democratic elected officials by the Trump administration will invariably result in law-abiding public servants being marked for death by violent extremists. The Trump administration and their squad of masked agents must change course before it is too late,' House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) wrote in a statement on X. 'This is America. The request for a judicial warrant and observance of law enforcement activity are not crimes. There is zero basis for a federal investigation and any such plans should be dropped forthwith,' he added. Sen. Alex Padilla (Calif.) was forcibly removed from a June 12 press conference by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He attended the event with federal escorts and attempted to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question. 'I'm Sen. Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,' Padilla said before being swarmed by agents and forced outside the room. Trump administration officials allege he lunged at Noem and, despite verbally identifying himself as a lawmaker, agents were unaware of his official capacity without the presence of a physical pin typically worn by members of Congress. 'Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers' repeated commands. @SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately. Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after and held a 15 minute meeting,' DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on social platform X. Padilla later spoke out about the incident, declaring it as a threat to constitutional rights and the rule of law. 'I will say this: If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, I can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country,' he said. Rep. LaMonica McIver (N.J.) was federally charged for allegedly interfering with ICE agents during a visit to the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, N.J., for congressional oversight. McIver was conducting oversight at the facility alongside Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) and Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), who all say McIver didn't obstruct or impede law enforcement operations amid immigration protests outside the building. Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba announced June 10 a three-count grand jury indictment of McIver over the incident. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) filed a House resolution to expel the lawmaker. 'The facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation. This indictment is no more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump's administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do,' McIver said in a statement on the matter. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan was indicted by a federal grand jury in early May for 'knowingly' concealing a migrant. Authorities allege Dugan directed the migrant and his counsel to leave the courtroom through a 'non-public' jury door to avoid immigration authorities after telling ICE agents they needed a warrant to search the premises. 'As she said after her unnecessary arrest, Judge Dugan asserts her innocence and looks forward to being vindicated in court,' Craig Mastantuono, the attorney representing Dugan, said in a statement to NBC News. Following her April arrest, Dugan was temporarily suspended by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which said 'it is in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties.' Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was briefly arrested following his visit to the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey. Habba originally threatened to press charges but withdrew the statement after further review of the incident. 'I was cuffed, fingerprinted, took pictures of, twice — once there and once in court — for a class C misdemeanor, which you send summons to people for. You don't lock them up and take their fingerprints,' Baraka told MSNBC. 'They said the charges are too minor to have a preliminary hearing,' he added. 'So if it's too minor to have a preliminary hearing, why are you fingerprinting me and taking pictures of me and interrogating me in a room? And why are you doing it twice?' Baraka has filed a lawsuit against Habba in her personal capacity regarding his treatment, false arrest, malicious prosecution and defamation in addition to accusing the interim U.S. attorney of acting as a 'political operative, outside of any function intimately related to the judicial process.' Ricky Patel, the Homeland Security Investigations agent in charge of Newark, is also named in the suit. Rep. Jerry Nadler's (N.Y.) staffer was briefly detained in May after DHS agents entered the congressman's Manhattan office searching for 'protesters.' One agent accused Nadler aides of 'harboring rioters.' 'They barged in. And in barging in one of the offices, a very big, heavyset fellow pushed my aide — a very petite young woman — and they then said that she pushed back and they shackled her and took her downstairs,' Nadler told CNN. 'And she was obviously traumatized,' he added. Her detainment was again condemned by Jeffries, who said the effort was a part of a larger objective being enforced by the Trump administration. 'The administration is clearly trying to intimidate Democrats, in the same way that they're trying to intimidate the country,' Jeffries said in an interview with CNN. 'This whole 'shock and awe' strategy — this, 'flood the zone with outrageous behavior' that they've tried to unleash on the American people during the first few months of the Trump administration — is all designed to create the appearance of inevitability.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
