NewsNation host Chris Cuomo said on Wednesday that Democrats condemning all of President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk’s actions shows they have not “learned” from their 2024 election losses.

As Democrats work to organize their strategy to oppose the Trump administration, some, like Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, are pushing to resist the president’s entire agenda. When ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith remarked on The Stephen A. Smith Show that Democratic lawmakers seem like they are “still campaigning” through their protests, Cuomo agreed.

He emphasized that Democrats need to focus on offering “better ideas” rather than constantly attacking Republicans.

“I can’t put it any better than that. They’re still in campaign mode. Sounds right,” Cuomo said. “It seems like anything that Trump or Musk does, they have to condemn, and they have to condemn it on the basis of the people personally. Trump is a ‘Nazi.’ Musk has ‘apartheid roots.’”

Democratic Illinois Rep. Jonathan Jackson falsely claimed at a protest rally on Feb. 5 that Musk wants to bring apartheid to the U.S., citing Musk’s birthplace in South Africa and declaring, “We’re not gonna have apartheid in America anymore!”

However, Musk attended anti-apartheid protests and concerts as a child in 1980s South Africa, according to an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s book, Elon Musk.

“And to me, it just proves they haven’t learned their lesson yet, that they should be in the better idea business. And they do seem like they’re defending the status quo,” Cuomo continued. “They’re just defending the establishment. And I don’t think that’s where you want to be right now.

“You want to be in the business of better, and they seem like they’re still in the business of painting the other side as worse,” Cuomo added.

The NewsNation host emphasized that Democrats must “find a better answer” to the question of whether they genuinely want to improve the lives of Americans or are simply trying to score political points against Republicans.

“There’s a lot of hand-wringing going on on the left, and to me, that’s almost like masturbatory,” he said. “You know, it’s not really about getting them to a better place.”