Congress
Garcia vows not to be silenced amid U.S. Attorney’s inquiry into his criticism of Musk
Congressman received a letter from the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C.

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is pushing back after President Donald Trump’s interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, disclosed his office’s inquiry into whether the congressman’s remarks about Elon Musk earlier this month constituted a threat against a public official.
“This is completely ridiculous, to essentially threaten me with possible prosecution [and] investigations through the U.S. Department of Justice because I used a metaphor to criticize Elon Musk,” Garcia told The Bulwark’s Tim Miller during an interview on Thursday.
At issue is a Feb. 12 appearance on CNN during which, as Martin said in a letter to the congressman’s office on Monday, “When asked how Democrats can stop Elon Musk, you spoke clearly: ‘What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy.'”
He continued, “This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk – an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a ‘dick’ – and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry.”
Garcia’s comments came just after he participated in the first House subcommittee hearing on Musk’s DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which was established by an executive order issued on the first day Trump took office.
In a statement to the Washington Blade, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) said “Rep. Robert Garcia is a thoughtful, hardworking and law abiding legislator who serves his constituents and the nation with distinction. House Democrats will not be intimidated by far right extremists who are determined to weaponize the criminal justice system against Congress.”
Garcia serves on the powerful House Oversight Committee as well as in the Congressional Equality Caucus, as one of its 11 LGBTQ co-chairs. In November, he was elected the Democratic Caucus Leadership Representative.
“I’ve talked to a lot of folks, members of the House and others, who have been very supportive.” he said on Thursday. “I said, ‘Look, we can’t allow this singling out of me. It’s not really about me, right? This is about silencing critics and critics in Congress.'”
Later in the interview, he added “we’re talking to the appropriate folks, and of course, talking to folks in the Democratic leadership” who understand the broader stakes in terms of “our job” as House Democrats to “be the loyal opposition.”
U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly (Va.), the Oversight Committee’s top Democrat, also issued a statement condemning Martin’s letter on Wednesday:
“This is a shameful attempt to silence and stifle congressional oversight. Mr. Martin – an organizer, financier, and legal representative for the January 6th insurrection – is weaponizing the Justice Department to carry out the President’s retribution tour.
“This ‘Operation Whirlwind’ is a smokescreen meant to distract from the true intentions of the Trump Administration: silencing criticism and snuffing out any attempt to exercise oversight of their misdeeds and perversion of the law. I can assure you that Congressman Garcia and our fellow Oversight Democrats will not be deterred by these threats, and we will continue to fight to safeguard our democracy and protect the rights of the American people we serve.”
Martin on Wednesday announced “Operation Whirlwind,” a new initiative to prosecute threats against public officials at all levels of government, which some critics and legal experts believe is primarily intended as a means of silencing criticism.
In addition to Garcia, Martin has sent letters to the Senate’s Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) on Jan. 21, Feb. 3, and Feb. 11, indicating plans to review remarks he made in 2020 to see if they constituted unlawful threats against two of Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch,” Schumer said, “I want to tell you, Kavanaugh — you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
The top Senate Democrat was speaking during a rally about the conservative jurists’ potential revocation of decades-old constitutional protections for abortion, which they ultimately did in 2022 with their 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
As detailed by aide to the senator in his response to Martin, “on March 5, 2020, the day after the comments referenced in your letter, Senator Schumer made the following remarks” from the Senate floor:
“Now, I should not have used the words I used yesterday. They didn’t come out the way I intended to. My point was that there would be political consequences–political consequences–for President Trump and Senate Republicans if the Supreme Court, with the newly confirmed Justices, stripped away a woman’s right to choose.
“Of course, I didn’t intend to suggest anything other than political and public opinion consequences for the Supreme Court, and it is a gross distortion to imply otherwise. I am from Brooklyn. We speak in strong language.
“I shouldn’t have used the words I did, but in no way was I making a threat. I never—never— would do such a thing. Leader McConnell knows that, and Republicans who are busy manufacturing outrage over these comments know that too.”
The aide concluded, “As Senator Schumer’s statement on the Senate floor confirmed, the comments were not a threat to physically harm any person. I hope that this clarifying information is helpful.”
Shortly after Trump’s appointment of Martin, the conservative lawyer and activist dismissed pending cases against rioters who sacked the Capitol building on Jan. 6 2021, fired the prosecutors who were involved, and began investigations into those who brought obstruction charges that were ultimately invalidated by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June.
Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor who teaches law at the University of Michigan and serves as a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, told the Washington Post she had “never seen anything like these letters from a U.S. attorney,” who would typically assign agents to lead such a probe while abiding the Justice Department’s policy of not confirming or denying the existence of any investigation.
“It seems like a fair inference that these letters are designed more to chill free speech than to seek clarification, as they purport to do,” McQuade added.
Garcia agreed, telling Miller on Thursday that the effort “could have a chilling effect on other folks that actually want to come out and criticize and oppose” Trump, Musk, the administration, or their allies.
Looking ahead, Martin has “given me, by the way, till Tuesday to respond to this letter,” Garcia noted. When asked about what he planned to do, the congressman said “we’re having some conversations about that” but “what we’re not going to do is is stay silent.”
“The lesson here is not to retreat,” he said. “The lesson here is to push harder and continue to let people know they are literally trying to limit free speech.”
Discussing his remarks about Musk during an appearance on CNN Thursday, Garcia said “what’s really critical at this moment, I think, for all of us to understand, is that we should be allowed to speak freely, and we certainly should be allowed to use figures of speech, and anyone that watches that can see that as a figure of speech or a metaphor in the way we’re describing this fight.”
The congressman added, “And it is a fight. This is a fight for democracy.”
Trump’s Department of Justice is targeting me for criticizing Elon Musk. Members of Congress have a right to speak freely and oppose the Administration – especially as they try to destroy our agencies and federal institutions. We won’t back down. pic.twitter.com/y3ykpOxzyE
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) February 20, 2025
Congress
Chris Pappas reportedly planning run for US Senate
Gay N.H. lawmaker has not officially announced bid

Gay U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) has told colleagues he plans to run for New Hampshire’s open U.S. Senate seat, to succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, according to a report in Axios on Thursday.
“I haven’t come to a decision yet,” he said during a town hall over the weekend. “But I know these times are incredibly perilous, and this is a time where we need the kind of leadership that Sen. Shaheen has demonstrated, which is about putting the needs of New Hampshire first.”
Axios also reported that fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, who represents the Granite State’s 2nd Congressional District and previously served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, is considering a run.
Hundreds of constituents attended recent town halls hosted by Pappas and Goodlander.
While Pappas’s voting record positions him as among the most centrist and bipartisan of the House Democrats, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has sought to portray the lawmaker as a far-left ideologue in a new oppo website.
If he runs and is elected to succeed Shaheen, Pappas would be one of two openly LGBTQ U.S. senators, alongside Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
Congress
Garcia warns U.S. government faces a ‘five-alarm fire’
Congressman blasted Senate Leader Schumer for supporting GOP budget

Although U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D) has only served in Congress since 2023, the representative for California’s 42nd Congressional District quickly emerged as a rising star in the Democratic Party who has become known as an especially outspoken critic of President Donald Trump since his return to the White House in January.
Delivering memorable hits on cable news programs, punchy sound bites in congressional hearings, and spirited spats with political opponents on X, Garcia is among a handful of leaders on the left who have been feted for their outspokenness at a time when pushback against the administration by Democrats has widely been criticized as anemic, ineffectual, inconsistent, or insufficiently aggressive.
Last week, the California congressman, who is gay, sat down with the Washington Blade in his office for an interview that was continued by phone on Tuesday in the wake of Friday’s move by nine Senate Democrats and their leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) to avert a government shutdown by supporting the controversial budget proposal advanced by congressional Republicans.
Critics blasted Schumer and the senators who voted with him, arguing that they had voluntarily forfeited leverage that their party will rarely again have the opportunity to exercise — at least, not until the 120th Congress is seated in 2027, and only then if Democrats are able to recapture control of either or both legislative chambers.
Calling the Democratic leader’s decision “out of touch” and “a huge disservice to the American people,” Garcia said he was “incredibly angered and beyond disappointed,” adding “I think that he’s turned his back, in my opinion, on the rank and file base of the party, and certainly on his own members.”
The congressman said he agrees with remarks made in recent days by Senate Democrats who have deemed this battle over the budget “the moment to actually stand up to Donald Trump and Elon Musk in a way that was forceful and strong.”
“Those that voted to support this budget resolution are completely not aligned with the vast majority of Americans and certainly [not with] Democrats who wanted to actually fight Elon Musk and push back much harder,” Garcia said, contrasting Schumer’s leadership with Jeffries who “did the right thing” and was able to bring “the caucus together,” successfully convincing “everyone, I mean, almost unanimously, to vote against the budget.”
More than that, Garcia said Friday’s vote exemplifies a broader failure among some elected Democrats “especially, maybe, among those that have been in government for a long time” to reckon with the existential risks presented by the Trump administration and powerful allies like Musk.
The congressman said these political leaders “are thinking that somehow this is just another year or just another cycle, and things will just get better and go back to the way they were” because they have failed to recognize the ultimate ambitions of the president, his administration, Musk, and their allies, who endeavor to “fundamentally restructure the way government works, to build a system where you have an authoritarian at the top with enormous amounts of power” unchecked by the federal judiciary or the legislative branch.
“It’s supreme executive authority,” he said, coupled with “disregard” for the powers ordained by the Constitution to the courts and to the Congress. “That is a very dangerous formula when you’re sitting on top of the wealthiest country in the world with an enormous military and enormous power over what happens in the rest of the world.”
“We live in a very dangerous time and I just don’t feel like everyone is understanding that, including people in our own party,” Garcia added.
The congressman noted that reasonable people might reach different conclusions about whether Trump’s second term has yet presented such a grave threat to America’s political and democratic institutions and the rule of law that the time has come to declare a state of emergency or break the glass, to to speak, to release the fire alarm.
In Garcia’s view, “you have the richest man on the planet who’s getting only richer since the election of Trump, who has an unobstructed ability to go into agency after agency, access people’s personal information, essentially eliminate jobs, directly email federal employees about having to report their activities to him — that is a five alarm fire.”
“That is unconstitutional and it’s a real challenge to the way we operate our government,” he added.
Organizing grassroots resistance at home
Returning to more familiar territory for inter-party debate the congressman criticized the GOP’s budget package, warning that it might “slash other types of health care, could slash Social Security,” but because it proposes trillions of dollars in cuts, lawmakers will have no option but to “take Medicare and Medicaid apart.”
Together with the “destruction of our agencies” led by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Garcia said the effort by congressional Republicans to trim the budget in ways that will imperil access to critical medical care for populations that depend on it, including “low-income folks, seniors, and working class people” is meant to free up money for “huge tax cuts to Elon Musk, the billionaires, and large corporations.”
More specifically, during an interview Friday with MSNBC’s Alex Witt, Garcia warned the funding bill will “cut billions and billions of dollars, for example, for veterans’ health care” while prohibiting Congress from pushing back “on the tariffs that Donald Trump is trying to implement,” giving “a rubber stamp of approval to what Elon Musk is doing raiding our federal agencies,” and gutting programs by agencies like the U.S. Department of Education that serve students with disabilities and special needs.
Garcia further explained that “sending the money to the states as Trump wants to do essentially gives states the ability to send that money to private schools and to provide a system where actually public schools get defunded because private schools won’t take those programs up.”
Speaking with the Blade on Tuesday from Long Beach, the city in the center of CA-42 where he served as mayor from 2014 to 2022, Garcia explained how he was using the House’s district work period to organize opposition against the Trump regime.
After the congressman’s plane touched down from Washington, he took the opportunity to record a video for social media to explain that “We should be investing in our airports and passenger safety, not cutting 400 FAA positions” as the administration did last month.
“We need to hire more air traffic controllers and ensure that flying remains the safest way to travel,” he said.
We should be investing in our airports and passenger safety, not cutting 400 FAA positions. We need to hire more air traffic controllers and ensure that flying remains the safest way to travel. pic.twitter.com/3QSL6EcIIr
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) March 17, 2025
After Republican leadership encouraged its members to avoid holding in-person meetings with constituents because they had complained and expressed anger about the cutting or suspension of federal agencies, grants, programs, and services, Garcia announced he would hold town halls in GOP districts in California, a strategy that has been touted by other leaders in his party like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic candidate for vice president.
“Not this weekend but the next weekend I’ll be launching in a Republican member’s district in California and doing a town hall there,” Garcia told the Blade. “It will be in a Republican swing district.”
In the meantime, the congressman said he has been visiting with and listening to his constituents. “I just left a school here in southeast L.A. where I met with the principal and a bunch of teachers, and talked about the students that they have in special programs that are receiving funds from the federal government.”
“They were showing me kind of a center where they have, like, toiletries and shoes and backpacks for kids that they’ve received through support from the U.S. Department of Education,” he said. “So there’s just so much need, in talking to folks, and so much anger from people about what’s happening.”
“Earlier today, I was at the Social Security Administration center here in one of the cities I represent, so I am going around talking to people where they are getting their services and people are really frustrated,” Garcia added. “I don’t think people realize that most of these people that depend on a lot of these programs are working families, that they need the support to survive, and yet they have the richest man on the planet cutting their services because he feels like it and he wants a bigger tax cut.”
During last week’s interview, when asked what he hopes to gain from engaging with constituents in competitive neighboring districts that are now represented by Republicans, the congressman said he hopes that attendees recognize that “you have a member of Congress too scared to actually answer these questions” but his aim is foremost to listen to their concerns and address their questions.
Garcia recounted some of the reports in the media detailing scenes from town halls in GOP districts that were held prior to the effort by party leadership to contain the bad press. Attendees “were pissed,” he said. “They were demanding answers. Why am I losing my job? Why are my veterans’ benefits going to be cut? Why are you trying to dismantle the federal Department of Education when my kid has a disability and depends on these programs?”
Democratic leaders bring different strengths, styles
None of the nine House Republicans that the Democratic National Committee identified as “most vulnerable” represent districts in California, and it remains to be seen how many House Democrats will follow Garcia’s lead and stage town halls in red or purple areas of their respective states to take advantage of the anger and frustration over Trump’s second term.
Nevertheless, and notwithstanding his criticism for the Senate Democrats who cosigned the Republican budget, or his concerns that some leaders in the party may not have come to terms with the exigencies demanded by this tumultuous moment in American politics, Garcia stressed that House Democrats benefit from the different strengths and different styles brought by its diverse members.
There is even room to accommodate differences of opinion, he said, on questions like whether and in which circumstances transgender female athletes should be permitted to participate in girls’ and women’s sports.
Breaking from the position that, at least in recent years, has been held almost without exception by Democratic elected officials serving in national and statewide office, California’s ardently pro-LGBTQ Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom argued during an interview earlier this month that allowing these athletes to compete against their cisgender counterparts was “deeply unfair.”
The comments, which drew criticism from groups like the Human Rights Campaign, came as some Democrats had begun to question whether their electoral defeat in 2024 might have been partly attributable to daylight between the party’s position and where the broader electorate lands on the issue, with most Americans tending to support restrictions targeting trans players in at least some circumstances, according to data from surveys and polls.
Garcia said his position is and always has been that far too much focus and attention has been paid to the issue, which ultimately concerns such a small population that becomes smaller, still, when the aperture is narrowed further to focus just on athletes. Young people, he said, should be able to reap the benefits that come with participating in competitive sports, including those who will encounter additional challenges or hardship because they are trans.
Still, the congressman said he continues to support the governor, noting that few Americans have done more for LGBTQ rights than Newsom has.
Besides, Garcia said, rather than trying to reconcile minor party differences about the sports question, Democrats should instead band together against extreme efforts by the anti-trans Republicans “trying to police bathrooms or trying to take away their health care.”
“People are gonna have different positions,” Garcia said, and “our party has various different positions on this issue” just as Democrats can bring different approaches to communicating about policy or styles of messaging about politics to their work on Capitol Hill.
While “some of us have figured out ways of taking on the administration that also get some attention” or offer chances to “shine a light on the policies” thus exposing their harms, on the other hand Garcia said “There are other people in our caucus that are so good at what they do, and I would have a hard time doing what they do, because they’re so good at it.”
Leaning in to differences
During his time in Congress, the California Democrat, 47, said he has tried to capitalize on his knowledge of pop culture and entertainment “to get attention on a policy issue.”
For instance, last summer when Republicans went after Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings during an Oversight Committee hearing and in response Democrats sought to redirect the focus toward Trump’s conduct involving foreign business interests during his first term, Garcia quoted from a monologue delivered by Heather Gay during the finale episode of Season 4 of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”
In 2023, amid a GOP-led effort to restrict young people’s access to drag performances, the congressman kicked off Pride month with a tribute on the House floor honoring “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the popular program that has been credited with bringing the art form to wider attention and appreciation, including among non-LGBTQ audiences.
“The show has served as a critical space to discuss issues around inclusion, trans rights, mental health and self worth,” Garcia said at the time. “And this message couldn’t be more important as the LGBTQ-plus community continues to fight for equality and acceptance.”
Last month, a couple of years after Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene famously displayed explicit photos of Hunter Biden that were taken when the former president’s son was struggling with substance abuse, Garcia referenced the incident during the first hearing of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency.
After announcing that he had a “dick pic” to share, a large image of Musk’s face appeared on screen behind the congressman, who then delivered a message about how the controversial tech billionaire was “trying to take away your Medicare and Social Security and doing all these awful things to you.”
Garcia explained that this kind of creativity can help Democrats reach audiences that might be less inclined to see or less eager to consume traditional sources of information about politics. “I think that we have to remember that not everybody reads The New York Times and watches cable news,” he said. “You can do all the cable news you want. You can get quoted in The New York Times as much as you want, and put out statements, [but] there’s a huge segment of the population that’s never going to see that.”
“It’s important that we use moments that speak to different groups to drive a message,” the congressman added. “Because I am gay, and because I know a lot about pop culture and stuff — because, you know, we like to know a lot about stuff like that, I think it does help. I am still actively watching RuPaul. I follow things that maybe the average political person is not following.”
This familiarity that comes with membership in marginalized communities can become especially important in the context of working in a legislative body where their rights and protections are under attack.
“There’s an active dismantling of our rights,” Garcia said, “and gay marriage could be on the line [along with] gay adoptions, teaching history about leaders in our community in our schools. All of that is on the line, and so we’ve got to be very clear about that.”
Reciprocally, the congressman said, that responsibility also applies when people who belong to marginalized communities are present in those spaces. “I talk to gay friends back home, and I remind them there’s an attack happening right now on trans people, on gay people,” he said, “and you have to wake up to that and know that it’s your job to, like, stand up and be loud, and you just can’t live your life every day thinking everything’s just gonna get better when Donald Trump’s not the president.”
Standing up to Musk and the Trump administration can be risky
Of course, there is always a risk of attracting negative attention, particularly when a member of Congress stands up to a public figure as polarizing and powerful as Musk or Trump and with a message that is designed to reach audiences that might not otherwise watch clips from a hearing or floor debate in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In February, Garcia was targeted by Ed Martin, a close Trump ally who shortly after his appointment by the president to serve as U.S. attorney for D.C. issued a “letter of inquiry” to the congressman’s office over remarks he had made during an interview on CNN.
“When asked how Democrats can stop Elon Musk,” Martin explained, “you spoke clearly: ‘What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy.’”
He continued, “This sounds to some like a threat to Mr. Musk – an appointed representative of President Donald Trump who you call a ‘dick’ – and government staff who work for him. Their concerns have led to this inquiry.”
In response, Garcia vowed that his criticism would not be stifled by attempts to intimidate him with the specter of an investigation or charges by the Justice Department for comments that any reasonable person would interpret as a metaphor or figure of speech rather than a legally actionable call for violence against a public official.
The congressman told the Blade he believes the effort was meant to silence not just his criticism of Musk but also to create a chilling effect that would dissuade others from speaking out publicly against the billionaire.
“And so we’re going to continue to call out what Elon Musk does, the damage he’s doing, and I’m certainly not going to stop using metaphors,” Garcia said.
As of Tuesday, the congressman said his office did not reply after their receipt of the letter from Martin, adding that he had consulted with House counsel “which is the proper approach.”
Asked to share how he evaluates the risks and potential rewards of speaking out against powerful interests who lead a regime that is bent on retribution against critics and political enemies, Garcia said that as a lifelong comic book aficionado, to some extent he sees taking on real-life villains in Congress as a necessary part of his work on behalf of the people.
“I’ve learned my values through comic books,” he said, “and I view the world very much in terms of people that are doing the right thing in truth and justice and people that are, I mean, who better exemplifies Lex Luthor than folks like Elon Musk?”
Garcia said that earning the ire of Musk, Trump, and Republican colleagues like the anti-trans extremist U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.) is a sign that he is on the right path, adding that these folks should feel opposition from elected Democrats and other leaders along with the anger they might witness from X users who might post on the platform to vent their frustrations with its owner, demonstrators who might picket outside the White House, or angry constituents who might show up to their representative’s town hall meetings.
Additionally, he said, “I’ve told other members of Congress this, whether we’re in a meeting or sharing a meal, I said, ‘when you look back at this moment, and we think about who should be opposing Elon Musk and Donald Trump in this moment, that’s us.”
Garcia also expressed gratitude for his “fantastic, very supportive” family and close friends including pals from college who are part of his “great support system back home.” The congressman said that while he and his husband split up and are now divorced, the two have remained “very close” and share custody of their cat.
Support also comes from strangers, he said, who increasingly have been approaching him in public to express gratitude because they feel he is giving voice to their feelings about the administration. In fact, Garcia said he feels more embraced than ever before by his community in Long Beach, including compared to his tenure as mayor.
What’s next for the Democratic Party?
Garcia is realistic about the extent to which he and his Democratic colleagues can hold the administration accountable so long as they remain in the minority, where they are unable to even access all the documents and paperwork necessary to do their work on the Oversight Committee let alone pass legislation without buy-in from Republicans.
At the same time, he cautions that Democrats must not focus on the midterms to such an extent that they do not recognize or call attention to their opponents’ effort to gut the federal government, causing harm on a scale that will be difficult to quantify for savings that will be used to carve out tax breaks for the country’s richest people and corporations.
As Democrats work to rebuild after their losses in the 2024 cycle, Garcia said he has been influenced by proposals such as those floated recently by Ezra Klein of The New York Times, who has urged the party to focus on creating a politics of abundance as an alternative to the politics of scarcity that empowers Republican coalitions.
The Democratic Party has “made it difficult to build housing, by over regulating, by not allowing there to be more for everyone,” the congressman said. “I’ve seen it happen in the way we do our environmental policy, our housing policies,” the latter being a challenge that “I struggled with when I was mayor.”
“In our states and in our cities, everyone is talking about this question,” he said. “I mean, maybe they’re not calling it ‘abundance’ in the way that Ezra Klein is referring to it,” but there has been a lot of self-reflection and dialogue among Democrats about how “we have been creating communities in states where people are leaving,” where because they can no longer afford to live there, “working class people are leaving.”
Garcia in November helped to launch the bipartisan YIMBY caucus which works to promote the development of new housing across the country, leading the effort with fellow founding co-chairs, U.S. Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.), and Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.).
Along with substantive reforms designed to deliver real results for working people, the congressman discussed some of the ways he would like to see Democrats refine their media strategy, including by making appearances on conservative media outlets like Fox News — without compromising or softening their message or policy positions.
Watching former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spar with the network’s right-wing hosts, Garcia said, was eye-opening in terms of how the segments were mutually beneficial for the Democratic cabinet secretary and members of the right-wing cable network’s audience.
The California Democrat said that he was probably the only guest who appeared on Griff Jenkins’ 60-minute Fox News program during his most recent interview on March 1 with the network’s Washington based national correspondent to offer a take that was critical of Musk but grounded in facts.
“It’s about reaching as many people as possible and in as many venues as possible,”
Garcia said. “That’s why I’m going on Fox News. And honestly, I encourage all Democrats to do it. I feel good about our growing opposition. But, you know, it’s also taken us a while — I mean, we went through a really bad loss, and I think that a lot of the party apparatus was unprepared for how strong and fast Trump was going to be.”
Congress
House Republican misgenders Sarah McBride in transphobic attack
Comment derailed subcommittee hearing

U.S. Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) deliberately and repeatedly used the honorific “Mr.” for U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first and only transgender member of Congress, sparking a confrontation that derailed a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.
After Self, who leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Europe Subcommittee, misgendered the congresswoman from Delaware, she replied “Thank you, Madam Chair.”
The top Democrat in the room, Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating, then spoke up to request that the chair repeat his introduction, which he did, again referring to McBride as “Mr.”
“You are out of order. Mr. Chairman,” Keating said, raising his voice. “Have you no decency? I mean, I have come to know you a little bit, but this is not decent.”
Self then started to adjourn the hearing, telling colleagues “we will continue this” before he was interrupted by the ranking member, who told him, “You will not continue it with me unless you introduce a duly elected representative the right way.”
McBride addressed the matter in a post on X Tuesday night, writing, “No matter how I’m treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress. It is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place.”
No matter how I'm treated by some colleagues, nothing diminishes my awe and gratitude at getting to represent Delaware in Congress. It is truly the honor and privilege of a lifetime. I simply want to serve and to try to make this world a better place.
— Sarah McBride (@SarahEMcBride) March 12, 2025
Self doubled down again, writing on social media “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” citing President Donald Trump’s day-one executive order mandating that the federal government treat gender as a binary that cannot and does not deviate from one’s birth sex.
The policy is out of step with mainstream science and medicine, which recognizes that human biology is complex and one’s gender identity is often but not always linked to one’s sex at birth. Critics of the order have also noted that its narrow definitions for sex and gender exclude people who are born intersex, with a combination of male and female biological traits (genitals, chromosomes, hormones.)
“While there are some areas of active debate, scientists are in wide agreement that biological sex in humans as well as the rest of life on earth is much more complicated than a simple binary,” a biology professor said in a report published by the Washington Post last month.
“It’s trying to explain away people,” a health law professor told the paper, referring to the executive order. The administration, he added, wants “to try to present it as this extremely simple issue — as if it’s really just one or the other, you’re male or you’re female.”
McBride’s historic election last year came as Trump and other Republicans were running on promises to enact increasingly extreme anti-trans legislation or policies, with GOP campaigns, spending $21.5 million on anti-trans ads, with much of that spend coming at the tail end o the 2024 cycle.
Transphobic attacks against the congresswoman, including from House Republicans, began before she was even seated. U.S. Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia both misgendered her repeatedly while touting Mace’s proposal to prohibit trans women from using sex-segregated women’s bathrooms at the Capitol, publicly acknowledging that the move was intended to target McBride. More recently, U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of West Virginia misgendered her in February on the House floor.
When serving in the Delaware Senate, McBride was recognized for her successful sponsorship of a bill providing 12-week paid family and medical leave for workers, an issue that was central to her congressional campaign along with her focus on healthcare reform and is a key piece of her focus on reforming care infrastructure in Congress.
In cases where she has elected to address the cruel and bigoted attacks against her from GOP colleagues and others, McBride, has consistently tried to redirect attention towards her work on behalf of the constituents she serves, as seen in her post on Tuesday.
In January, McBride partnered with U.S. Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.) on the first bill she introduced in Washington, which aims to protect consumers from scams in the credit repair industry.
Last week, the congresswoman joined her colleagues in reintroducing the bipartisan Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and together with other Democrats introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act which, per a press release, would “restore and modernize the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and prevent states with a history of voter discrimination from erecting new barriers to the ballot box.”
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