Top Democrats gathered at Crooked Con today to debate what’s next, from Chuck Schumer’s leadership to another potential impeachment for Donald Trump.
Dems are just weeks away from seizing power in Congress, raising the all-important question: What should they actually do with it? Party leaders came together at Crooked Con, the world’s most fun political conference, in Washington D.C., to kick off that after sweeping the midterms. The vibes were sky high, and the takes were red hot.
The urgent debate: What Democrats should prioritize once they retake the House
andSenate in January. The Iran war? The cost of living? Ending tariffs? Raising the minimum wage? Restoring Obamacare subsidies? Investigating Trump?
“What’s the first thing Dems should do?,” I asked members of Congress, Crooked podcast hosts, and everyone else I met. (
Hysteria’s Erin Ryan told me: Make the Department of Homeland Security sell its tricked out taxpayer-funded Boeing luxury jet…. “Sell Kristi Noem’s)fuck plane!”
Rep. Melat Kiros (D-CO) gave me a policy answer. “I want to see us vote for Medicare for All,” she said. “There is no other policy that shares as much popular support as it does, that would be as effective and as efficient at addressing the healthcare crisis.”
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) called for universal paid leave and universal child care. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) wants to ban elected officials from stock trading and using prediction markets. Some lawmakers were even open to the idea of shutting down the government to prevent funding for Trump’s war in Iran.
Some of the buzziest news out of Crooked Con came from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), when Crooked’s Jon Lovett
quizzed her onwhether she would support Chuck Schumer as majority leader again. Slotkin didn’t explicitly say that she’d back him — and when asked if she might run for the position, she responded: “I’m not ruling anything out.”
Much of the chatter focused on how to hold the Trump administration accountable.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who will chair the powerful House Oversight Committee, said he’ll be willing to go to court to enforce congressional subpoenas — both through the civil process, and through criminal contempt. While Trump controls the Department of Justice, which is tasked with enforcing criminal referrals from Congress against those who refuse to answer a subpoena, Trump’s power won’t last forever.
“There is no reason why people cannot and should not and will not eventually go to jail for the crimes that they are committing,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) said on a panel, also calling for the use of criminal contempt.
Democrats are divided on whether or not to impeach Donald Trump for a third time. Many believe he deserves it, of course. But some call the move a waste of time, given the apparent impossibility of exceeding the two-thirds Senate majority threshold to convict and remove him.
“I don’t think we should focus our attention right now on impeaching Trump,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told
What A Day. “I mean, he has committed impeachable offenses, no doubt about it. But let’s shine a light on his corruption.” Democrats should instead focus on calling out Trump for making billions off the presidency, and trying to create a slush fund to pay his political allies, Van Hollen argued.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), who served as an impeachment manager during Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020 and was once threatened by Trump with “death,” said he wouldn’t want the process to “end up in the same place” as the past efforts.
“Let’s start with Pete Hegseth,” Crow told
What A Day. “Let’s start with all the folks around [Trump], and then we figure out what is the best way to achieve accountability and push back on Donald Trump.”
As one political reporter tweeted about Crooked Con: “I don’t think I’ve seen this much libbing out since the Obama years.”
Check out this new essay, It’s Ok to Believe Again, by Crooked’s Jon Favreau —
The results are in: Crooked Con attendees voted on their top pick for the Democratic presidential nominee in 2028… and the Republican they’re hoping this nominee will get to run against. A solid 990 attendees cast votes.
The Dem winner: Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), with 38.4 percent, followed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) with 16.6 percent and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with 13.9 percent.
Who would they most like this nominee to face? Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Don Jr. One respondent simply wrote: “My brain melts when I try to reconcile the word ‘excited’ with these names.”
**Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), on his potential 2028 ambitions: **“I think coming from the swingiest swing state in America, we’ve got a little bit to say about that, and I definitely intend to be a part of that conversation about what our party looks like going forward.”
Still Counting’s** Clare Malone, on potential 2028 candidates:** “Pete Buttigieg and Abdul El-Sayed always go on Fox News… When a Democratic politician is a consistent guest on Fox, it’s like ‘I want to run for president.’”
**Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), on pushing back on the Iran war: **“The big hammer is White House operations funding. We control that. So if he can’t find a way out of this, we can put pressure on him.” Kelly also said he’s thinking about running for president.
Iowa’s incoming Democratic senator, Josh Turek, made a surprise, late-breaking appearance at Crooked Con: “We’ve got to go out there and immediately provide results, and that’s going to be ending the war, repealing these tariffs, bringing back ACA subsidies, raising the minimum wage,” Turek said. “These are the issues that, if we don’t provide results, that pendulum is going to swing right back.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD): “The Supreme Court has become an obstacle to democracy. We need to get democracy moving again.”
**I asked several politicians about their go-to comfort food on nervous election nights. **Rep. Crow told me that it’s his “famous Crow old fashioned, which I’ve worked for years to perfect,” I asked what the recipe entailed, which was a mistake. “I can’t tell you the recipe. It’s a closely guarded secret. But I took several years to perfect this recipe. There’s some very, very important tweaks. So I’ll have to make one for you at some point.” Deal!
What about Sen. Van Hollen? “I do like McDonald’s french fries. I will confess to that. I like macaroni and cheese,” he said. “During stressful times, you have your coffee on one hand and you have your comfort food on the other. It’s a terrible diet.”
Rep. Kiros, who’s usually vegan, opted for a much different treat. “I notoriously forgot to eat or drink on election night both nights. But I really love these, like, cheddar chickpea snacks,” she said.
