Progressives Livid at Dems Saying Trump Isn't 'Existential Threat to Democracy'

Progressives are livid Democrat lawmakers reportedly have admitted former President Donald Trump is not a threat to democracy, something President Joe Biden and his campaign like to say.

The New York Times columnist Ezra Klein appeared on "The Bulwark Podcast" this week and said "top Democrats" have told him off the record they can "live with Donald Trump winning" the general election in November.

"People are weighing this set of things. Like, 'It would be quite unpleasant for me personally to come out against the president as an elected official in the Democratic Party,' and weighing what will happen if Donald Trump wins, and saying, in a revealed preference way, 'I can live with Donald Trump winning,'" Klein said. "And I've heard people say that to me off the record, to be fair.

"I have had top Democrats say to me, basically something like, 'I don't know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy are acting the way they are but the reason I'm acting the way I am is I don't think that.'"

Podcast host Tim Miller displayed shock upon hearing Klein's comment.

"Who the f*** is this," he asked of the "top Democrats."

Klein later told Miller that Democrats are resigned to Trump winning the election.

"I think you have to at some point say, whatever these Democrats are saying in public, they're more resigned and more willing to just be a resistance to a Trump presidency than a lot of their public-facing rhetoric would suggest," Klein said.

"You have a calm voice, but you're skyrocketing my f***ing blood pressure right now," Miller said. "Ezra, I'm just, like, so f***ing mad."

Miller later posted what he termed "the GALLING exchange" with Klein on X.

Progressives then released their anger.

"This is a story with actual, legitimate villains. Here they are. May they rot in hell," posted Aaron Regunberg.

"If a party is filled with this many useless people, there is no reason for it to exist," posted Vox writer Sean Illing.

"It's so quaint, the idealism. It's as if people living in a city devoted to politics don't understand politics at all," posted Damir Marusic, The Washington Post opinions assignment editor.

Following Trump's conviction in his New York paperwork trial, the Biden-Harris campaign released a statement:

"The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator 'on day one' and calling for our Constitution to be 'terminated' so he can regain and keep power."

However, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, wrote a Bangor Daily News opinion column with the headline "Donald Trump is going to win the election and democracy will be just fine."