Even Left-Leaning Media Are Mocking Democrats’ Shutdown Messaging

Even the mainstream media are pushing back on the Democrats’ government shutdown messaging after they decided to vote against the Republicans’ continuing resolution that would have kept the federal government operating. 

A Politico article Wednesday, “‘Gen Z Is in the House!’ and Other Cringe Moments in the Democrats’ Shutdown Marathon” lambasted the online antics of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Jeffries, who has led the House Democratic Caucus since 2023, implemented a YouTube livestream on his channel in the hours following the beginning of the shutdown.

It struggled with technical difficulties, low viewership, and hours of absent programming. At one point, Jeffries awkwardly declared “Y’all, I ain’t scared,” adding, “I’m from Brooklyn.”

The Democrat leader was perhaps not worried about the consequences of Democrat obstruction, given that he and his colleagues will continue being paid during the course of the shutdown. Meanwhile, untold thousands of federal workers, including Democrat voters, are getting furloughed and potentially permanently terminated by the Trump administration. In the case of some military personnel, they will be required to come into work without compensation for the time being.

Perhaps the most obvious sign of struggles by Democrats to connect with voters was the noticeable absence of consistently high audience numbers on the YouTube livestream. According to Politico, the YouTube live video by Jeffries sometimes dipped to as low as a few dozen viewers.

“Are the metrics embarrassing? Yes. But the bar is in Hell, at least they’re trying,” one Democrat strategist was reported to have said to the outlet.

Democrats have attempted to get the Republican majorities in Congress on board with their effort to expand Obamacare subsidies that can be used to subsidize health care plans that include abortions and transgender surgeries. Republicans have also taken issue with the Democrats’ push to repeal provisions of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act that eliminated some categories of noncitizens from receiving government benefits.

Politico went on to note that 22 of the 26 Democrats in competitive congressional districts for next year’s midterms did not made appearances on the stream. Neither did the social media savvy congresswomen Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. In their place was Rep. Sarah McBride, who represents the safely blue state of Delaware and is the first trans-identifying member of Congress. Coordination was also somewhat lacking, according to the article. Jack Cocchiarella, a left-wing Gen Z YouTuber, appeared surprised when the video stream cut to him.

One section of the livestream featured four members of Congress opining about Halloween and using a pineapple as a prop. Republicans swiftly took aim at the Democrats’ content with Ben Petersen, the national war room director at the National Republican Congressional Committee, posting on the social media platform X, “Just 400 people are watching, and they’re currently trying different types of candy,” adding “Also: Chat is disabled.” 

White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung noted the White House’s own livestream, which has topped 100,000 viewers. 

“Meanwhile, @WhiteHouse is schlonging Democrats on the viewer count,” the White House official posted on X. 

Rebecca Katz, a political strategist who has worked with rising Democrat star Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist running for mayor of New York City, attributed the Democrats’ messaging woes to failures by the party’s leaders. 

“There are Democrats who are attracting more eyeballs and enthusiasm. The problem is party leadership is shunning many of them,” Katz told Politico.

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