Democrats love a good confession, especially when they think it’ll buy them a little credibility. Every time their poll numbers crater or voters revolt, some self-styled “truth teller” pops up to admit what everyone already knows. Cue Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, who lamented in an interview this week that his party has become “out of touch and can’t be trusted.”
Moulton’s comments came during an appearance on Real Patriotism with Terry Moran, where he offered what sounded like some overdue honesty about the failures of the Biden years. He pointed out how Democrats under President Joe Biden brushed off major issues like immigration and inflation, apparently unaware — or uninterested — that those problems were hammering ordinary Americans. “That’s the way a lot of Americans feel about our party,” he said, “that we’re just out of touch and can’t be trusted.”
He’s not wrong. According to a new Quinnipiac University poll, only 18% of voters approve of the job congressional Democrats are doing — a number so low it may as well come with a shovel. But Moulton’s “wake-up call” isn’t the moment of self-reflection he wants you to think it is.
It’s political theater, plain and simple.
When Democrats lose elections, we always get these politicians' moments of self-reflection and public efforts to distance themselves from the fringe of their party. Then, when it really matters, they fall right back in line.
Take immigration. Moulton admitted that during Biden’s presidency, Democrats dismissed the border crisis, saying, “Immigration isn’t a problem. There’s nothing to see here.” He even blamed his own party for refusing to recognize the mess that’s spilled from the southern border into cities nationwide. But what did he do when the Laken Riley Act, a commonsense measure to detain illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes, came up for a vote in the House? Moulton voted against it.
So much for acknowledging the problem.
The same hypocrisy shows up on cultural issues. Just last year, after the Democrats’ rough showing in the 2024 elections, Moulton appeared to grow a spine and warned that his party refused to talk honestly about biological males competing in women’s sports. “I don’t want my daughters getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete,” he said. Sounds like common sense, right? But when the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act came up — the very policy that would prevent the thing he claimed to oppose — Moulton voted against it. His daughters can play second fiddle to woke identity politics, apparently.
ICYMI: Jonathan Karl Can’t Recall a More ‘Partisan’ Speech Than Trump’s. Who Wants to Tell Him?
His comments about inflation ring hollow, too. Moulton criticized Biden’s team for brushing off the cost-of-living crisis, saying they insisted inflation was “transient.” He contrasted that with candidates like Zohran Mamdani, who, he said, were more focused on “affordability.” If you’re trying to make a solid argument on economic policy, you completely undermine yourself by pointing to Mamdani as a good example.
Moulton even took a jab at how Democrats covered for Biden’s obvious cognitive decline, mocking their “nothing to see here” messaging about the former president's health. But again, where was he when any of this mattered? Silent, compliant, and voting in lockstep with the same leadership he now pretends to critique.
Democrats can pretend to see the light all they want, but until they actually stand up to the radicals in their own ranks, their mea culpas mean nothing. If Seth Moulton really wanted to regain Americans’ trust, he could start by matching his words with his votes. Until then, his talk of accountability belongs right where the rest of Biden’s legacy does: in the pile of empty promises.
