Do Democrats Hear Themselves?

Vice President JD Vance’s handling of the press is masterful, and some of his interactions with them have taken on iconic status.

For example, in January, Vance was being interviewed by Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.” While asking Vance about the Trump administration’s immigration policies, Brennan protested that Afghan refugees who were not being allowed to come to the United States had been “heavily vetted.” Vance pushed back, pointing out that an Afghani man who had planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma was said to have been “properly vetted.” When Brennan countered, saying that it wasn’t clear whether that immigrant had been “radicalized” before or after he came to the U.S., Vance cut her off: “I really don’t care, Margaret,” he said. “I don’t want that person in my country, and I think most Americans agree with me.”

That exchange became an instant meme.

Vance is only continuing the straight-talking style he utilized on the campaign trail. Last October, in an interview with Vance, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz downplayed the threats posed by the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gangs in Aurora, Colorado, which then-presidential candidate Donald Trump had characterized as having “overrun” the city.

“The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes,” Raddatz insisted.

Those “incidents” — not only in Colorado but other states where TdA operates — included widespread sex trafficking and forced prostitution, arms and drug dealing, contract killings, automobile theft, violent assaults and extortion.

Vance’s response was perfect. “Martha, do you hear yourself? Only ‘a handful of apartment complexes’ in America were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem? …”

“Do you hear yourself?” hasn’t gone viral the way “I really don’t care, Margaret” did. But it should. In fact, it should be Republicans’ primary campaign theme as they move toward the 2026 midterms, because Democrats’ statements, their policies, the groups they defend, and their knee-jerk opposition to anything and everything President Trump does make them sound just as ridiculous as Raddatz trying to handwave over the violent crime caused by a foreign gang in a Colorado city.

The first few months of the Trump administration provide countless examples.

This week, Trump sent the National Guard into Washington, D.C., after a series of high-profile attacks — including murders of a congressional intern and two Israeli embassy workers earlier this year in the nation’s capital. Despite a reduction in violent crime since its all-time high in 2023, D.C.’s crime rate is still high. (And some of the reduction is attributable to gentrification of the city’s poorest areas.)

You’d think that efforts to make the city safer for its residents, lawmakers and their staff, foreign diplomats and hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit each year would be something about which Republicans and Democrats could agree. But no. Democrats like D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser are more interested in bashing Trump. Bowser called Trump’s action “authoritarian.” D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith couldn’t even provide a response when a reporter asked what the new chain of command would be with the National Guard involved in D.C. policing; she said, “What does that mean?” New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said, “Donald Trump … has zero credibility on the issue of law and order. Get lost.” Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to dredge up her lies about having the National Guard in D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.

Do Democrats hear themselves? Their tone-deaf comments are constant.

Law-abiding Americans have to worry about their safety because Democrats’ policies favor criminals, both foreign and domestic.

While Americans are outraged about crimes committed by people here illegally — crimes that include drunk driving, violent assault, rape and murder — Democrats express deep concern about those criminals being sent back to their home countries or to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

While Americans who own businesses suffer retail theft that costs them (and the country) tens of billions of dollars each year, Democrats like those in California advocate for policies that reduce shoplifting to a misdemeanor and give thieves a slap on the wrist. (And that is if they are prosecuted at all.)

Democrat-controlled legislatures in New York and Illinois enacted laws eliminating cash bail. In some cities (including Washington, D.C.), Democrat prosecutors have bonds set ridiculously low — or refuse to prosecute certain crimes at all. As a result, criminals are back on the street.

Similarly, Americans watch in horror as downtowns in our major cities are destroyed by homelessness, filth and rampant, open drug use. Those situations were created or exacerbated by policies Democrats called “compassionate.”

Across the country, Democrats purport to be incensed about Republicans redrawing congressional districts, even though Democrats have used their political power to gerrymander voting districts to favor Democrat candidates for decades. In Texas, Democratic Party legislators illegally left the state, trying to prevent the legislature from acting. This is apparently something Democrats do when they don’t have a majority; Wisconsin Democrats pulled a similar stunt in 2011.

Haven’t Democrats been saying for years that subverting the legislative process is “dangerous to our democracy”?

When Republicans try to pass — and enforce — common-sense laws that protect election integrity (requiring voter identification, proof of citizenship, postmarks and matched signatures on mailed-in ballots), Democrats throw hissy fits, claiming that the laws disenfranchise legitimate voters. That’s complete garbage. You have to have an ID to buy a beer, drive a car or board an airplane. The real problem is that it prevents noncitizens from voting, improper ballot harvesting and absentee voting fraud.

Democrats are so hell-bent on opposing Trump that they have reduced themselves to caricatures. Their policies are antithetical to the safety and prosperity of Americans. They have lost the plot and — according to recent polls — the confidence of the American public.

If other Republicans are as adept as Vance at calling out the lunacy on the left, Democrats will lose more elections as well.

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