Debbie Dingell breaks down the Michigan primary
Debbie Dingell is big on tough love.
“She’s very quiet,” President Biden recently joked as he campaigned with the Democratic congresswoman in Michigan, her home state. “Like, ‘Joe, get over here quick. Movement.’”
Dingell has been doing that for years alarm signals sounded when she perceives danger to her party in Michigan, a critical battleground state. That was the case in 2016, when Donald Trump narrowly won, and so was she vocal again ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primaries, which were dominated by clashes over Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
The issue is especially salient in Michigan, which has a sizable Arab-American community. On Tuesday, many Democrats vented their frustration by voting “uncommitted,” a warning sign that the fragile coalition Biden put together to win in 2020 may be fraying. Overall, Biden had won 81.1 percent of the vote in the Democratic primaries as of late Wednesday afternoon; the “uncommitted” effort attracted 13.2 percent.
(My Times colleague Nate Cohn has a full breakdown of the Michigan vote in his newsletter, The Tilt.)
We interviewed Dingell to have her read the results. She said emotions were running incredibly high.
“I just talked to people who have lost countless relatives and parents or grandparents, aunts and uncles,” she said, describing the Gaza bombing. ‘They have no food. At least five people have told me stories of drinking salt water and running out of salt water and having nothing there. I mean, I’m crying. Some nights I don’t sleep.”
“I also know that what Hamas did was an act of terrorism,” Dingell added about the October 7 attacks in Israel. ‘I met the families of the hostages. It’s horrific.”
When she questioned whether Biden — who has long sought moments to empathize with voters on the campaign trail — was doing so enough with Arab Americans, she suggested there was more to do.
“The White House understands that they need to reach out more,” she said, noting that some administration officials had already done so and were building relationships. “At the right time, the president must meet with members of this community.”
More broadly, she thinks Democrats haven’t done enough to communicate Biden’s achievements in office, especially to younger voters: “It’s incumbent on all of us to better communicate what the Biden administration has done. I think we all did a terrible job.”
Ultimately, Dingell said, Michigan is a “purple state” — and key voting groups “need to be reminded what’s at stake and why it matters that they vote.”
In the meantime, she emphasized that many Democrats did indeed stand up for Biden on Tuesday.
“Everyone is talking about Joe Biden’s commitment,” she said. “Joe Biden got more than 80 percent of the votes. Trump was in the 1960s.”
McConnell will step down as leader
Senator Mitch McConnell, for years the highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, said on Wednesday that he would give up his place as leader of the party at the end of this year. former President Donald Trump.
“Believe me, I know the politics in my party at this particular moment,” McConnell, who turned 82 last week, said in a Senate floor speech announcing his intentions. “I have a lot of mistakes. Misunderstandings about politics are not part of that.”
His decision was no surprise. McConnell had a serious fall last year and had several episodes where he froze in front of the media. He has also faced increasing resistance within his ranks because of his push to provide continued military aid to Ukraine, and because of his scrupulous leadership style.
His announcement followed a meeting at the White House on Tuesday where he strongly advocated for congressional approval of a foreign aid bill that includes more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, and urged Chairman Mike Johnson to place the proposal in the House of Representatives.
“I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the beautiful city on a hill that Ronald Reagan spoke of,” McConnell said.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, said he expected McConnell’s decision to resign would free him to aggressively push for aid to Ukraine.
“It’s likely that he’s going to work as hard as he can as he heads into retirement to make sure the national security bill gets across the finish line in the House and Senate to President Biden’s desk,” Jeffries said in his speech. an interview.
McConnell became the longest-serving Senate leader in history at the start of this Congress, surpassing Montana’s Mike Mansfield and fulfilling a personal purpose. Although he worked closely with Trump in placing conservative judges on the federal bench and three justices on the Supreme Court, McConnell broke with Trump over his refusal to acknowledge that President Biden won the 2020 election and over the January 6 attack on Trump 2021. the Capitol, for which McConnell held Trump responsible even as he voted against his impeachment conviction.
—Carl Hulse
Read the full story and related reporting here.