| Dear Sharra,
I heard a sports figure say there are three phases of the athlete’s activity: Rest, Rehab, and Run. After a game, you have to rest. Then you have to repair yourself. Then you have to get back out there and run. Our rest period was simply shock, as Democrats and other non-Trump supporters took in the reality of our electoral defeats on November 5. Rehab has been the analysis, the soul searching, the efforts to recalibrate after having lost so much.
Now it’s time to get back out there and run!
It’s been 6 days since Trump’s Inaugural Address and the plethora of executive orders that make up the initial phase of his dictatorial takeover. Those who find words like “dictatorial” hyperbolic - who think we need to be more “moderate in our language,” who are afraid we’ll “offend the center” if we really tell it like it is - should not be directing communications in the next chapter of the DNC.
If I am Chair, they will not.
Trump is unabashed about pushing his agenda, and so should we about ours. He is fashioning his second Presidency on figures like Victor Orban, the dictator who replaced liberal democracy in Hungary. During his debate with Harris, Trump called Orban “one of the most respected persons, they call him a strong man…tough…smart.” Tucker Carlson likes him too, and in 2023 CPAC even had him speak at their convention.
Obviously Trump does not understand - or perhaps he does, which is even worse - that in political terms “strongman” is not a compliment; it means an authoritarian leader who exerts control through military enforcement. That Trump appointed Pete Hegseth rather than a seasoned, qualified person to run our Department of Defense actually makes sense. Trump doesn’t want anyone as Defense Secretary who might say “Uh, Sir, I don’t think we’re supposed to do that. It’s not American. It’s not even legal.” Quite the opposite. Trump just wants someone in the position who will do exactly what Trump says he wants.
Trump’s former defense Secretary Mike Esper told the public that Trump asked about protesters, “Can’t we just shoot them in the leg?” Of course Esper said “NO SIR.” Yet when Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii asked Pete Hegseth in his Senate confirmation hearing whether he would carry out a Trump order to shoot protesters in the leg, Hegseth refused to say no.
Who among us is not going to remember that, if something happens and we’re considering protesting a Trump policy? Given that Trump’s administration, in the first six days, has already taken down from the White House website the Constitution, the Spanish speaking page, the women’s reproductive rights page, the gun prevention page, and the disabilities page; that Secretary of State Rubio has now banned trans or non binary Americans from applying for a passport with anything other than Male or Female on their application; that trans women are now barred from womens’ prisons; that mass deportation ICE raids are already underway; that all federal health agency meetings have been cancelled until further notice (meaning no further conversation about cancer, deafness or the bird flu); that environmental regulations are being stripped; that all Civil Rights investigations are hereby forbidden; that any mention of DEI is now removed from all federal agencies; that all Inspectors General overseeing federal agencies have been fired; that $190M for childhood cancer research has already been removed from a spending bill… there just might be some things we’d want to protest.
Make no mistake about it. People are not just upset. They are afraid. And the Democratic Party - specifically the DNC - has a sacred responsibility to respond to that fear. We will do so by being as audacious as is Trump.
As Chair, I would be neither soft bellied or spineless in my communication. I would be meeting daily with our communications teams, our members, our Policy Institute, our media partners, and our party chairs around the country. This nation will be saturated with a vision so American, so democratic, and so true that it will drown out the noise of the autocratic shock and awe campaign being waged by the Trump administration.
In short, enough with the old fashioned stuff. This isn’t 20 years ago. We must be quick, we must be nimble, and we must be fast on our feet. I will train a team of communicators who will amaze, on every media platform and in every nook and cranny of this country. We will motivate, we will inspire…and in time, we will win.
There has never been a time quite like this in America - an assault on our freedom waged from within the White House. But that doesn’t mean our democracy has never been threatened before. It has. But our ancestors handled the problem, and so will we.
It is imperative that the DNC lead the charge. And we must act now. Sincerely, | 
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