Democrat lawmakers have said that their voters are now threatening “blood” and “violence” over their inability to stop President Donald Trump from continuing forward with his agenda.
Several House Democrats told Axios that members of their voting base have become increasingly agitated and hostile in the face of Trump’s ongoing agenda, which reached a milestone last week with the passage of his “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
“This idea that we’re going to save every norm and that we’re not going to play [the Republicans’] game … I don’t think that’s resonating with voters anymore,” said one House Democrat.
Another House Democrat said that they now feel a “sense of fear and despair and anger” among voters, adding that this “puts us in a different position where … we can’t keep following norms of decorum.”
Over two dozen Democrats anonymously confirmed that voters are threatening serious, potentially even violent consequences over Trump’s continued agenda. One even said that voters have suggested they should be “willing to get shot” when confronting ICE agents.
“Our own base is telling us that what we’re doing is not good enough … [that] there needs to be blood to grab the attention of the press and the public,” the lawmaker said.
Another said that “civility isn’t working” and they need to prepare for “violence … to fight to protect our democracy.”
Another said, “people online have sent me crazy shit,” like “storm the White House and stuff like that.”
Some Democrats strongly cautioned voters and other lawmakers from embracing those extremes.
“It’s like … the Roman coliseum. People just want more and more of this spectacle,” said one lawmaker. “Not only would that be a gift to Donald Trump, not only would it make the job of Republicans in Congress easier if we were all mired in legal troubles … [we are] a group that is disproportionately people of color, women, LGBTQ people — people who do not fare very well in prison.”
Another lawmaker said those calls to violence come from “very secure white people.”
“What I have seen is a demand that we get ourselves arrested intentionally or allow ourselves to be victims of violence, and … a lot of times that’s coming from economically very secure white people,” the lawmaker said.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), one of the more hard-left members of Congress, said that “the most effective pushback to Trump’s unconstitutional actions is to model a reverence for the Constitution and the rule of law.”
