“Last week stung. As Democrats, we simply failed to convince the American people we have better ideas to solve their problems, but we do. Now we need to dust ourselves off and get ready to fight,” he said. “We can’t let Donald Trump’s extreme MAGA agenda go unanswered or unopposed,” he continued, walking through his pitch to “borrow from our British friends and appoint a shadow cabinet to fight back against the worst abuses of a second Trump administration.”

He described this as “another form of checks and balances.”

“It’s democracy’s insurance policy, and it strengthens the government, too. There’s no room for lazy ideas when rivals stand ready to step in,” he claimed.

“If Trump attempts to weaponize the justice system against his political opponents with Matt Gaetz at the helm, we can see incoming Senator Adam Schiff as our shadow Attorney General, arguing against replacing our independent prosecutors with Trump loyalists,” he said, ignoring the great irony that Democrats have used the justice system to target their political opponents — Trump and his supporters — throughout the entirety of the Biden-Harris administration.

“If Trump seeks to eliminate the Department of Education, Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, a former teacher of the year, could step up as shadow Education Secretary to loudly defend public education the United States,” he said.

“If Trump orders Marco Rubio to hand Ukraine and much of eastern Europe to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Congressman Greg Meeks as Shadow Secretary of State [could] be a strong voice in support of maintaining international relationships and protecting democracy at home and abroad,” he continued, pitching Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) as shadow Treasury Secretary, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WI) as shadow Commerce Secretary, and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) as shadow Defense Secretary. He believes Smith could “counter Trump’s threat to use military force against his political opponents and work to ensure that the Department of Defense stays loyal to the Constitution and not some wannabe dictator.”