Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts appeared on Fox News Wednesday to acknowledge his party is currently disconnected from most Americans on key issues.
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten explained in January how Americans have shifted significantly toward trusting Republicans over Democrats to handle immigration since President Donald Trump’s first term. Moulton, on “America’s Newsroom,” said Democrats wrongly rejected the notion that the U.S. border was insecure and he accused former President Joe Biden’s administration of avoiding discussions about inflation.
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“The point that I’ve made is that I think we need to do a lot more listening as a party. A lot of people think that you hear from Democrats and they get a lot of preaching, a lot of talking down,” Moulton said. “Sometimes we have the facts but it’s just the way that we come across that really turns people off. And I heard from a lot of people, friends of mine, before this election, including guys I had served with in the Marines who said, ‘Look, I know Trump is immoral, I know he’s nuts, but you guys are so out of touch.’”
“We’ve got to show that we can get back in touch with Americans, especially around the issues that really matter. There is a problem at the border. For too long, Democrats denied it,” he continued. “We did have a problem with inflation. The Biden Administration didn’t want to talk about it. We’ve got to talk about these issues and present solutions to the American people.”
Moulton also said the fact that the Democrats were defeated in the 2024 election “across the board” shows his party has “fallen out of touch with the majority of Americans.” Trump won the popular vote and Electoral College against former Vice President Kamala Harris, while Republicans maintained control of the House and the GOP flipped the Senate.
“We need to show that we’re willing to change, we’re willing to listen and we’re going to make a positive difference in your lives,” Moulton added.
Democratic Washington Rep. Adam Smith similarly said on Jan. 28 that Democrats need to rebuild “credibility” by honestly acknowledging their failures on immigration and other issues rather than merely attacking Trump.
“My party needs to reestablish our credibility on a number of issues. It’s not going to be enough, even if it is strategic and tactical and smart to criticize what Donald Trump does. I mean, we have to do that and we have to do it intelligently,” Smith said. “It’s just not going to be enough because we don’t have the credibility that we need on issues like immigration, like DEI, dealing with racism and discrimination. Like the economy. I think we need to spend more time reestablishing our own credibility, not just bashing, on what Trump does.”
The Democratic Party’s approval rating fell to nearly an all-time low of 31% among registered voters, according to Quinnipiac University polling published on Jan. 29.
Moulton on Tuesday expressed his opposition to the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) ongoing cost-cutting efforts. NewsNation host Chris Cuomo accused him of seeming like he was “defending the status quo,” but Moulton said the characterization was unfair due to his vocalization of openness to spending cuts in the Pentagon.
“There are a lot of places where I’m perfectly willing to modernize our government, to make it more efficient, to make a lot of cuts and save taxpayer money,” he said on Tuesday. “We should all be in favor of that.”
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