Trump, Jeffries and Schumer signal openness to bipartisanship in the next Congress
James Talarico and Adam Hamilton, the incoming Democratic senators from Texas and Kansas, used their victory speeches to call for an end to the “warring, trolling, eye-gouging tactics” that have taken over Washington, according to The Wall Street Journal’s Politics newsletter.
“We are tired of being pitted against each other,” Talarico said. “We are tired of being told to hate each other. It has been 10 years of this kind of politics. Politics as bloodsport…People across the spectrum are hungry for a different kind of politics.”
Hamilton, who won a Senate seat in Kansas, struck a similar note. He said he would try to be Republican Sen. Jerry Moran’s “best friend.”
“I want us to model what it looks like when thoughtful people work with each other instead of slinging mud at each other,” Hamilton said.
The newsletter, written by the Journal’s Washington coverage chief, Damian Paletta, framed the speeches against a long tradition of freshman idealism — a tradition, Paletta noted, as old as the Lincoln Memorial and one Hollywood took up in a 1939 film. Hamilton wants people to stop slinging mud, the newsletter observed, but Washington “has been awfully muddy lately.” Paletta also asked whether the two are attempting to lead “a major reset of American politics.”
Paletta reported that a tremendous number of new lawmakers are arriving from both parties, and that it is possible an openness toward bipartisanship is one message that resonates in Washington. President Trump has hinted at it, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer, both New York Democrats, are suggesting they would be open to it.
The question Paletta said he hears most from readers, friends and family members is what Democrats are going to do. Talarico and Hamilton could be part of that conversation, he wrote.
The newsletter also sketched the agenda awaiting the new Congress. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is expected to head the Senate Banking Committee — a prospect, the newsletter said, that has Wall Street bracing itself.
On trade, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the party’s senior trade lawmaker in the Senate, said Democrats are eyeing Trump’s trade war with Canada as the first target in a campaign to roll back the administration’s tariff agenda. Wyden said he is already talking with colleagues about legislation to push against the second-term levies come January.
On the courts, the newsletter reported that voters have likely guaranteed Trump will not add a fourth Supreme Court justice. Trump put three justices on the court during his first term, and the Democrats’ midterm blowout gave them a Senate majority that will make it easy to block his judicial nominees — especially for any Supreme Court vacancies that may come up in 2027 or 2028, Paletta wrote.
At the White House, the administration is working to keep its coalition of conservative organizations intact after what the newsletter described as high-profile defections in the hours after the election. The White House Office of Public Liaison sent a memo to more than 3,000 conservative organizations laying out a list of Trump’s accomplishments.
“As always, we are monitoring statements, press releases, and media engagements from your organizations,” the memo said. The administration, Paletta reported, is trying to prevent the group from splintering further.
Trump, meanwhile, was scheduled Friday to hold policy meetings, take part in a Diwali celebration at 1:30 p.m. and then travel to Florida, where he will deliver remarks at the UP.Summit held at the Kennedy Space Center. The Bureau of Labor Statistics was set to release October’s jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The newsletter closed with a historical echo for its civility theme: on this day in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th U.S. president, becoming the first Republican to hold the office. Lincoln triumphed over three other candidates, winning 39.7% of the vote, the newsletter noted.