Shontell Smith, partner at Tusk Strategies, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss infighting within the Democrat party after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voted to support the continuing resolution, and the party's strategy going forward during President Trump's second term.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now
00:07is Chantel Smith, partner and head of the New York practice at Tusk Strategies. Chantel,
00:12thank you so much for joining me.
00:14Thank you for having me.
00:16Ever since November, really, it seems that Democrats have seemingly lost their footing,
00:22unsure of how to combat the Trump administration at this moment. And I think that was really
00:27on full display last week when House Democrats were united, except one in voting against
00:34the continuing resolution. And then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did an about
00:38face and voted to support it with nine other Democrats. I've spoken with House Democrats.
00:44One said he was completely blindsided. All three of them said that they weren't happy
00:49with Schumer's decision. What do you make of the move? And what do you think this says
00:53about the Democrats writ large?
00:55I think, you know, first, let's start off. I think, you know, the minority leader had
00:58no good options. Had he voted against the measure or didn't allow the measure to move
01:03forward, I think that would have allowed the president to have unprecedented power in terms
01:08of what he determined was necessary government spending. I think that the minority leader
01:13was just afraid of the impact. I think, as we can see, that the president's actions lately
01:19have not been predictable. And with, you know, the cuts that he's been making on the federal
01:24level, people were very concerned. On the other hand, you know, the minority leader
01:29had a party that went to fight. And in this time and during this presidency, I think Democrats
01:35have lost their footing and they just don't know how to react. I think the minority leader
01:42caught people by surprise because you remember the day before he said, we don't have the
01:45votes in the Senate. And then there was an immediate about face. It seemed like, you
01:50know, obviously, minority leader Jeffries was surprised. Many of the colleagues in the
01:55Senate were surprised. Had the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, messaged this better, maybe
02:02it wouldn't have been so bad. But I think it was the abrupt about face, the lack of
02:07notice, because let's be honest, you know, leader Jeffries and his, you know, and his
02:14conference, they stood pretty solid, which was a vote that many didn't think that people
02:19would actually take and vote in the negative. So I think the about face, that's the issue
02:25that everyone's just like, wait, is this man like, is he right to lead right now? Should
02:30he be leading? It's difficult.
02:34And he even said, I was in a difficult position. I was stuck with two bad choices. And I felt
02:39like keeping the government open was the better option, because as you said, give if the government
02:44shut down, he said Trump and Elon Musk would have really unfettered access to hacksaw everything.
02:50And I think that Democrats at large are in a different moment now than they were in 2017
02:56during Trump's first term, because here's some numbers from NBC. According to NBC in
03:012017, more Democrats wanted the Democratic lawmakers in Congress to work with the Trump
03:06administration. Now it's completely flipped. We're almost two thirds of Democrats want
03:11Democratic lawmakers to stand their ground, to fight back, even if it means less results.
03:17So how do lawmakers then do you think in the Democratic Party meet this moment?
03:22You know, this is just a moment of deep reflection, I think, for the Democratic Party, because,
03:28you know, I think the difference between this administration this time around versus the
03:34first time, I don't think the president knew his power and yielded his power. It took him
03:39time to maneuver where this is like he's coming in, kicking the door down, and he's
03:44taking he's doing what he wants, because he believes he was given a mandate by the American
03:49people. You know, I think Democrats right now, I think you have, I think we're seeing
03:54the Tea Party of, you know, 2009 and 10, starting to emerge within the Democratic Party, because
04:01you have people who say fight, fight, fight. And then you have people who say, I don't
04:05want to fight, I just want to be able to pay my bills, and worry about what's going
04:09on in my locality. So right now, there's this this internal riff. And it's going to take
04:16I do believe this, the midterms will show the breaking of the Democratic Party. And
04:23I think you might see not a Tea Party, but like a left party be a little bit more resolute
04:30in what they believe in and who they will support, and what is needed for them.
04:35I think that's a really interesting point. Because it's been two months and a day since
04:40President Trump took office again for the second time. And he's kicked the door down.
04:45I mean, there's been orders on everything, tariffs, trade war started, stopped, paused
04:50everything in between a lot of action on immigration. And it's almost like Democrats are playing
04:55defense where they're not hitting everything even before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
05:01said, we're not going to do everything. We're not going to scream at every issue. Instead,
05:06we're going to find our important ones and lie down on the tracks. I mean, is that the
05:10right strategy?
05:11But they didn't fall on the tracks for anything. Like what have they fallen on the tracks for?
05:15And I think that's the issue. So I've been speaking about this on the like New York level,
05:20but this globally, you see these actions every day, and people are having anxiety, they're
05:25having feelings about it. And leadership is saying, don't worry, when it's time to fight,
05:29we will fight. Many believe the time the fight was during the CR, and there was no
05:34fight. And I think this is where like Democrats right now are like, what is happening? Why
05:39are we not fighting? And if we're not fighting for this, when are we really going to put
05:44on a fight?
05:46I think that's a really interesting point, too, because is it all about fighting President
05:51Trump? And as you said, what are they fighting President Trump on? The Democrats I've talked
05:55to in the House are really united on fighting Medicaid or fighting to make sure Medicaid
05:59is saved. But aside from that, what issues matter to Democrats? Or is it just about fighting
06:04the Trump administration? Because if that is their message, defense, if you've ever
06:08watched a sporting game in your life, if you're always on defense, you're never scoring a
06:12point and you're never going to win.
06:14Exactly, exactly. I think, you know, you know, I think some people would say immigration,
06:20I see. But this is why the party where we are as a party is so interesting, because
06:26many would say immigration. But if I'm from, like, you know, some of the states that aren't
06:30impacted by immigration as much, I don't care about immigration. Some people would say,
06:34I would think Medicare seniors and veterans, those are the things that are true to democratic
06:40principles. We want to make sure they're protected, vulnerable classes. But then how do you define
06:45vulnerable classes? We're having like a culture war slash, you know, a war based of like fiscal.
06:53What does it do with our finances? We're just at war as a party. And I think there's
06:58going to be some change of leadership. You know, I know people have rumored to say they're
07:02going to primary, you know, the minority leader. I don't know if that will be successful, but
07:08I do think that there's going to be changes. And I think this election, people are going
07:13to be held accountable. And if you want my vote, you better say what you're going to
07:17do and you better show me that you will.
07:20And you need to have, I think, that elevator pitch of here's what Democrats stand for X,
07:25Y and Z. Republicans had that coming into 2024. They said our top issues are economy
07:30and immigration that lined up perfectly with what vastly Americans thought their top issues
07:35were. And as you see, they're in the White House. They are in the House and the Senate.
07:40So Democrats do have a deep bench. They have Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, AOC, Jasmine
07:46Crockett, Annie Beshear, Gavin Newsom. Those are very different Democrats with very different
07:51perspectives. So do you think that they need a unified message, a unified perspective?
07:57How do you go forward from here?
08:00I think they don't all need to have a unified message, but you need a unified base. There
08:05needs to be a base of collective principles at a minimum Democrats stand for. So whether
08:11that's protecting Medicaid, protecting, you know, seniors, it's like, what are we standing
08:16for? Are we fighting tariffs? Like, are we explaining? Do we want to talk about the economics
08:20of everything? Do we care about constitutional protections? You know, people are being deported
08:25without constitutional protections. You know, some of the handling of some of the things
08:30that the president is doing is just quite concerning. You know, do we want to be a party
08:35that believes in rule of law, like not in a public safety sense, but just respect for
08:42the Constitution, respect for, you know, the laws that the Congress passes and this
08:47the Democrat, not the Democratic as in Democratic Party, but the democratic principles that
08:53this country was founded on.
08:55And while Democrats seemingly have this messaging problem, they're facing historic lows in popularity
09:01according to polling and Blue Rose Research, which conducted over 25 million voter interviews
09:07last year found these facts. Gen Z is more conservative than millennials are. Those
09:12who get their news from more non-traditional ways are more right leaning. Higher turnout
09:16would have actually hurt Democrats and helped the GOP. There's been a massive swing in immigrant
09:21voters to Trump and Democrats are losing non-white voters. When you hear that, that doesn't sound
09:27anything good for Democrats. So how do you fix that, especially before midterms?
09:33You go back to bread and butter, you know, Democrats win when they talk about the things
09:37that are impacting everyday people. And I think in this election, we kind of lost that.
09:43I think we lost the talking about like, you know, the economy, the economy, you know,
09:47the price of eggs. You know, I just went to the grocery store, you know, 18 eggs for twelve
09:52dollars. That's a lot of money for people. So I think it's talking about the things that
09:56people talk about when they're home with their partners or loved ones. You know, the economy,
10:00the price of gas, housing, housing, the prices for affordable housing, they're non-existent
10:06right now. We are in an economic like we are not at a recession yet, but we are on the
10:11precipice of a recession. And I think we need to be honest about that. And what are the
10:16things that we can do to help people during this time? There was kind of during the election
10:21that we ignored it, you know. And I think we talked about the things that we thought
10:26were like big umbrella, umbrella, big umbrella democratic principles. But really, like people
10:32want bread and butter and the things that impact them and the things that they know.
10:38I guess my last question is to you, what is the future? Because it seems like, as you
10:43said, Democrats are at this Tea Party esque moment, almost an identity crisis. If you
10:48talk to House Democrats, they don't see it that way. But if you talk to any strategist
10:52or voter or American voters, they see it that way. And according to that poll, I mean,
10:56they're not popular. So how do you bridge that disconnect?
11:01Get out of your bubble. You know, I think though elected to believe that they're out
11:08in their community, they're around their community, but people that support them and believe in
11:13their ideals. I find that as a consultant, we constantly have to shake things up and
11:19make sure we have the pulse of who's around us. And I think right now, Democrats need
11:25to really like go in the grocery store, go to local churches, go to places that you may
11:31oppose and see another side of living so you can understand the true American story that's
11:36currently being presented right now. I think in politics, we stay in our collective bubbles
11:42and we think our bubbles is truth. And I think it would behoove the Democratic Party right
11:47now to step outside their comfort zone and just see life or live life through a different
11:54lens. Chantelle Smith, I really appreciate the
11:57conversation today. You are welcome back anytime. Thank you for joining me.
12:01Thank you. Thank you so much.