My new Congresswoman had her first virtual town hall (over 9500 people joined the call), along with our Attorney General (both Democrats). They confirmed the Democrats are hearing a lot of complaints about the South African, and they're also hearing from a bunch of people about the immigration crackdowns.
They emphasized that the last time Trump was in office, they had over an 80% success rate in court with him.
Confirmed that Trump's anti-trans laws are in conflict with states with laws that force insurance to cover trans healthcare. OR/WA/MN are the states leading the charges in the courts and they feel pretty confident they will win.
Brought up how the Congressional Dems tried to bring up the Stop Musk Act, the Saving Civil Service Act; and the Veterans Affairs Committee is pushing back hard against the firings. Democrats are trying to get a formal hearing on DOGE, and said if the Republicans don't cooperate, they'll try to hold their own hearing.
Confirmed the courts have been agreeing that Elon and Trump have exceeded their authority with unlawfully cutting spending.
They encourage federal workers who have been fired or are in danger to whistleblow to the Democrats so they can help them sue. They recognize the fear of people worried about retaliation but emphasized the Democrats cannot help if people do not come forward.
AG said that certain states have more power to fight in the courts than others depending on how much Trump's EOs affect their individual states. So states with more federal workers (VA/MD/etc) are the ones who are holding the microphones, with other states that don't have as many federal workers backing them up.
People in the town hall overwhelmingly said "protecting democracy" is the most important issue.
Emphasized that Congress has the power of the purse and no funds have been approved in Congress to detain immigrants at Gitmo. Our state Democrats are not deputizing local authority to work with ICE and will not work with the Trump with anything that violates sanctuary state laws.
Said massive numbers of people were calling in when Elon and DOGE were messing around with our security data.
Democrats are overwhelmingly hearing from constituents to be bold (altho they're also hearing people demand they do things they can't, like arrest Elon). They emphasize that the definition of "bold" depends on the district you're in; deep blue district Democrats can be bolder than purple or especially red district Democrats, so be understanding that not every Democrat can get away with what deep blue Dems can.
Admitted sometimes Democrats hold back too long because they want to know what the "right thing" to say is before they respond to something, but they said that the Dems are working on a rapid response team to get over this hurdle.
Their messages going forward will be short, simple, and basically at an Eighth Grade reading level.
Emphasized they are not going to help the Republicans with budget votes without concessions.
Emphasized Democrats are even more unified now than the first Trump admin, which will make them more efficient.
Emphasized that Republicans control both chambers. Democrats will do what they can, but there's only so much they can as the minority party. Putting pressure on Republicans - especially on bipartisan issues like FEMA - will help more than dragging Dems.
Said the most effective thing individual people can do is be active and loud at all levels of government (they confirmed it's having an impact; it helps that Dems can say "Over 2,000 constituents told me to take a stand against Elon"). Make sure people know their rights.
State laws exist independent of the Trump admin. Get involved in contacting your local and state governments.