n the latest instance of what is a recurring genre, New Yorker writer Susan Glasser registers her insatisfaction at the Democrats’ inability to resist President Donald Trump to her liking. The target of her ire this time is former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Glasser is simply unimpressed and lets the panel know it:
New Yorker’s Susan Glasser @sbg1 frustrated by Kamala Harris withdrawing and Democrats fighting amongst themselves instead of taking on Trump: “What’s extraordinary is that you’ve seen Donald Trump’s shock and awe campaign unleashed on the federal government and, you know,… pic.twitter.com/rsJpV638Ey
— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) August 3, 2025
KRISTEN WELKER: This comes against the backdrop of this debate that we saw in the Senate between Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar. You referenced it. But this idea about how to fight back against Donald Trump.
SUSAN GLASSER: Yes. I mean, what's extraordinary is that you’ve seen Donald Trump's shock-and-awe campaign unleashed on the federal government and – and, you know, segments of the American people over the last six months. And you have Democrats still having a circular fight about this. And I just – I have to say too, Symone, like, I get the idea that she's, you know, going to do what she's going to do. But to define that as leadership, you know, right now? And I – I get the idea that, you know, there’s many Americans who are suffering right now as a result of, you know, what they perceive to be the Trump administration's policies. But saying, "Well, I'm – I’m going to wash my hands of the fight because the system is broken," I find that hard to believe, just as a matter of politics, that that's going to be a winning message for Democrats next year in –
SYMONE SANDERS TOWNSEND: I just – I didn't hear –
SUSAN GLASSER: – a midterm election.
Glasser did the same thing on CNN some time ago, expressing dissatisfaction at Democrats who aren’t screaming “existential threat” every other minute:
GLASSER: But I would just point out that the other part of the debate that we're seeing right now, and it's early days, going back on Democrats on this question of are we really just in politics as usual, the oscillation from Democrats to Republicans in our very polarized 50/50 country, or, does Donald Trump and what he and his allies like Elon Musk, are doing really represent a kind of an existential threat to the country? Which is what, by the way, Democrats have campaigned upon. And if that's the case, I don't hear a lot of that from these governors right now. They don't seem to be acting like the country, like there's an existential threat. They seem to be positioning themselves for a kind of a politics as usual.
In the face of Democrat infighting, Glasser has taken the side of the Permanent Resistance versus Pragmatic Opposition. It is unclear what Glasser thinks Harris should do, exactly, now that she’s passed on running for governor of California and has a book to sell but it’s clear she wants Harris to do it in a more performatively resistancey manner, á la Sen. Corey Booker’s floor speech.
Glasser’s despair over the Democrats’ disarray in the face of Trump is reflective of the rest of the Acela Media, which saw Trump win a second White House term despite their best efforts. And perhaps this is why she is and will continue to be booked on these panels which are largely, and with few exceptions, a mirror into which D.C. watches itself look down upon the rest of America.
