Dem Group Therapy Goes Awry

Hakeem Jeffries
House Democrats are sluggishly coming around to depriving Johnson of votes on a partisan bill, a sentiment echoed by Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a Friday letter to his colleagues... Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Leigh Ann Caldwell
March 9, 2025

House Democrats, depressed and divided, are still disoriented from Donald Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night. Recent targets of their venom and second-guessing include the progressives who brought props; Rep. Al Green, who heckled the president and was escorted out by security; and the Democratic leadership, who had encouraged them to sit on their hands throughout the speech—resulting in footage of Democratic members sitting stone-faced while Trump honored Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel, a 13-year-old boy who’d survived brain cancer. The angsty Wednesday morning quarterbacking has spilled into current conversations over government funding, one well-wired House Democrat told me.