In The News
Rep. Jake Auchincloss: How Democrats Lost the Battle of Ideas During the Realignment
Congressman Jake Auchincloss, Representative of Massachusetts's 4th congressional district, returns to The Realignment. Jake and Marshall discuss the abundance agenda and the need to merge populist energy with actual results, why a focus on enhancing state capacity and defending programs like Social Security is compatible with abundance, and the need to reform America's higher education system, the endgame in the war in Ukraine, and the need to rebuild America's foreign policy after the end of … Continue Reading
March 26, 2025
LIVE: Trump DISASTER GROWS as COVER-UP Backfires
Jason Kander and Ravi Gupta break down the Signal fiasco, as the Atlantic releases more leaked messages after Trump officials accused them of lying. Ravi and Jason then turn to Trump’s latest executive order targeting top law firms, as Jenner & Block faces pressure and Paul Weiss caves, prompting George Conway to call it “the most disgraceful action by a major law firm in my lifetime.” Kander and Gupta then analyze the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act for mass deportations, … Continue Reading
March 25, 2025
‘Blatantly illegal’: Mass. leaders react to Trump officials leaking war plans through group chat
After it was revealed in The Atlantic that senior members of the Trump administration accidentally revealed secretive war plans to the magazine’s editor in a group chat, politicians across the country are demanding answers and expressing their outrage. Some of the most pointed responses have come from elected officials in Massachusetts. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the leak was illegal and called administration officials “amateurs.” Rep. Katherine Clark called for people to be fired over the … Continue Reading
March 24, 2025
Middleboro MBTA station opens as line extends to South Coast
The new Middleboro train station is officially on track as part of the newly launched South Coast Rail. The Middleboro Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) station opened Monday, March 24, serving as a stop on the service extension to New Bedford and Fall River. “We are happy the commuter rail is open and look forward to the economic opportunities that it will bring Middleboro,’’ Middleboro Town Manager Jay McGrail said. This brings passenger rail to southeastern Massachusetts … Continue Reading
March 24, 2025
Dems seethe over war plan group chat. How to stick it to the GOP is an open question.
Democrats seized on the revelation that senior Trump administration officials discussed war plans in a group messaging app in an effort Monday to outflank Republicans on issues of competency and national security. Repeatedly they called out what they saw as hypocrisy from Republicans who litigated much of the 2016 presidential campaign over Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information, even while several of the nearly dozen Democratic elected and appointed officials, strategists and … Continue Reading
March 21, 2025
Mass. delegation presses feds for details on mass firings: ‘Reckless purge’
Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation want more details from the Trump administration on the scope of its federal workforce cuts in Massachusetts. In a letter Friday, they accused the president of overseeing a “reckless purge” with negative implications on disaster preparedness, public health, public safety and national security. Downsizing the federal government, including eliminating thousands of jobs and slashing key functions from education to foreign aid, has been a … Continue Reading
March 21, 2025
Rep. Jake Auchincloss: Democrats Are ‘Bereft of Big Ideas’
Rep. Jake Auchincloss's Massachusetts district is so safe he didn't even face a Republican opponent in 2024. So while some of his Democratic colleagues are focused on the careful messaging needed to appease swing voters or keep their purple seats, Auchincloss, 37, is fixated on the broader question facing his party: what are the big ideas that Democrats can offer the American people? TIME spoke to the rising House Democrat about owning up to the party's COVID-era mistakes, getting tough on … Continue Reading
March 16, 2025
Democratic Party 'needs generational debate,' lawmaker stresses
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., breaks down the division among Democrats over the government funding bill, party messaging and the future of the … Continue Reading
March 14, 2025
Jake Auchincloss: Acquiescing to Chaos & Corruption
John is joined by Massachusetts Democratic congressman Jake Auchincloss to discuss how his party is handling the clash over a government shutdown and the broader challenges of Donald Trump's second term. Jake argues that voting for the Republican measure to fund the government is a mistake in terms of both policy and politics; the freakout in the worlds of business and finance about Trump’s trade war is nothing compared to what we’ll see when (Jake predicts) Trump tries to take over the Fed; … Continue Reading
March 13, 2025
Iran is weak and wounded. Now’s the time to ratchet up pressure.
After four years of the Biden administration trying — and failing — to sweeten the world’s foremost sponsor of terror into good behavior, the Trump administration’s shift back to maximum pressure on Iran is a welcome change. And a timely one. Tehran is in weak standing with the Iranian public. Its “axis of resistance” has been weakened by war with Israel. By returning to a tough sanctions policy that has zero tolerance for a nuclear weapon or Iran’s regional meddling, the Trump administration … Continue Reading
March 12, 2025
"Stop telling Russia it has all the cards:" Democratic lawmaker responds to next steps in Russia-Ukraine conflict
Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts tells Wolf Blitzer the "linchpin" in the next steps to end the war will be security guarantees to Ukraine and without them, "everything else is … Continue Reading
March 10, 2025
Over texts and ‘eyeball to eyeball,’ Republicans succeed in persuading Musk. But Democrats hit dead ends
When a multi-million federal grant program for dairy businesses was shut down earlier this month in line with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency push to downsize the government, Wisconsin lawmakers on both sides of the aisle sprang into action to try and save it. The Democratic senator who created the program, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, ran into resistance, facing dead ends in the Trump administration before eventually reaching the Agriculture secretary. GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, … Continue Reading
March 10, 2025
Auchincloss Addresses District Priorities, Challenging President Trump at Fall River Q&A Session
Dozens of residents from the 4th Congressional District, which includes Fall River, participated in a Q & A session with Congressman Jake Auchincloss at Durfee High School Saturday afternoon. The congressman spent an hour taking questions from over twenty constituents mainly focusing on the uncertainties created by executive orders and policies initiated by President Donald Trump during his first month in office. Regardless of what’s taking place in Washington, Congressman Auchincloss … Continue Reading
March 10, 2025
Democrats Backed Into a Corner in Government Shutdown Fight
WASHINGTON—Federal agencies risk shutting down late Friday night, and the Republican-led plan to keep them open has Democrats in Congress backed into a corner with few—if any—good options. The Democratic base has been begging party leaders to fight harder at every turn, but on most issues congressional Democrats are powerless in Republican-controlled Washington. They can’t stop President Trump’s nominations, his still-developing tax bill or GOP regulatory repeals, let alone the cuts that … Continue Reading
March 05, 2025
Trump is about to make your insurance bill more expensive
In a time of growing instability, there’s one thing we can be certain of: President Donald Trump is going to make your insurance more expensive. Before getting elected to Congress, I worked in the insurance industry, where I helped build new solutions to changes in homeownership, mobility and litigation. The president’s every action, from tariff threats to targeting immigrant workers, is setting off actuarial alarm bells. Insurance companies underwrite risk. First, they calculate how likely … Continue Reading
March 04, 2025
Democrats hope to confront Trump with people impacted by his actions during his speech before Congress
WASHINGTON — When President Trump addresses Congress on Tuesday, a key group of people impacted by his deep cuts to the federal government will be watching from the audience. Former federal workers and beneficiaries of government programs will be invited by Democrats, continuing a longstanding, bipartisan tradition of bringing guests to presidential speeches before Congress to highlight a message. This year, for Democrats, that message is about Americans they say are being hurt or could be … Continue Reading
March 03, 2025
Attleboro area congressman to bring former top USAID official to Trump address
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss is bringing a former top official with the U.S. Agency for International Development to President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Dr. Atul Gawande, former assistant administrator for global health at USAID, which is being gutted by the Trump administration, will be the Massachusetts congressman’s special guest at the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress, Auchincloss announced Monday. The Democrat represents the 4th District in … Continue Reading
March 03, 2025
Democrats Say the Wind Development Ban Won’t Affect Projects in Progress. The Reality is Less Clear.
A month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to restrict — and in some cases, entirely halt — wind energy development in the United States, renewable energy advocates are still reeling. In addition to a moratorium on any new offshore wind leases, the executive order mandates a review of existing wind leases to decide the “ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending” them. The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy … Continue Reading
March 02, 2025
Musk and Trump aren’t just decimating the federal workforce. They’re denigrating it.
At a recent House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — perhaps best known for heckling former president Joe Biden during his State of the Union addresses and blaming Democrats for causing hurricanes — ripped into this nation’s beleaguered federal workforce. “Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue, by the way. They’re consuming taxpayer dollars,” said Greene, who, despite not knowing what she was talking … Continue Reading
March 01, 2025
Here’s what Mass. Democrats say they’re doing to counter Trump’s ‘all-out assault’
Massachusetts Democrats are working with other party members in Congress to combat the stream of executive orders from President Donald Trump. “I think he has launched an all-out assault, not only against the middle class and against the most vulnerable in our country, but he has launched an all-out assault against our democracy,” Rep. Jim McGovern, who represents Massachusetts’s 2nd Congressional District, told Boston.com. Though Democrats are in the minority in both the Senate and the … Continue Reading