WASHINGTON — In the end, some Democrats just didn’t have the stomach for a drawn-out fight with Donald Trump.
They underestimated his apathy and ruthlessness in denying health care and food aid to millions of Americans, including his own voters. The fact that he went so far as asking the Supreme Court to block a court order directing his administration to disburse the benefits made it clear they were outmatched.
“I think that the Republicans were counting on the idea that we care about people more than they do,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said Monday.
Trump’s actions were “beyond craven,” he said.
Publicly, Democrats projected a unified front for 40 days. But behind the scenes, they were anything but together. They spent weeks agonizing about their strategy, poring over polling and debating how long to keep going. That they held out as long as they did is a surprise in itself, given the dueling factions inside the caucus.
