3 revelations from Politico’s big profile of Seth Moulton
Rep. Seth Moulton has been in Congress for less than three years, but the North Shore Democrat has already garnered numerous national headlines for his impressive résumé and willingness to take on his own party’s established leaders.
In a roughly 7,000-word profile, Politico’s Michael Kruse wrote perhaps the most definitive account of Moulton’s rise to prominence. The lengthy article includes interviews with the congressman himself, as well as many close friends and advisors.
Here are some of the most newsworthy — or otherwise quirky — revelations from the piece.
1. The obligatory 2020 speculation is front and center.
The stirring rumors of the second-term congressman’s presidential ambitions are nothing new, but Kruse’s piece appears to unearth their origins.
“You should run for president in 2020,” Scott Ferson purportedly told Moulton the morning after Donald Trump won the election last November.
“That’s ridiculous,” Moulton reportedly said.
Ferson pointed out who had just won.
“Fair point,” Moulton replied.
In the article, the Salem Democrat insisted he isn’t running for president as he has repeatedly done before. But Kruse reports that supporters see him as the “the antithesis of Trump,” given Moulton’s valorous Iraq War record and the president’s five draft deferments.
“This is a moment in time where he is the exact right person to run for president,” Ferson told Kruse.
Despite the congressman’s public statements, another longtime associate says he is “100 percent certain” Moulton plans to run at some point:
Based on discussions he had with Moulton over the course of years, [documentary filmmaker Charles] Ferguson told me, Moulton has his eyes on the Oval Office. The only question is when he will run.
“I am 100 percent certain that he intends to do that,” Ferguson said. “Unless there’s some very unexpected turn in the road, yes, he’s going to run for president.”
2. Moulton says many Nancy Pelosi supporters encourage him.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a more opportunistic, duplicitous person serving in the House,” one anonymous “senior Democratic aide” said in the article.
According to Kruse, that’s the gist of the argument from Moulton’s biggest critics inside the party, though none of them would do so with attribution — a classic Washington, D.C., move.
That said, the congressman has literally made his career by challenging the Democratic establishment, most recently advocating for Rep. Nancy Pelosi to be replaced as House minority leader.
Critics point to a thank-you note Moulton wrote to Pelosi prior to last year’s election as an example of his hypocrisy. Indeed, Moulton tells Kruse he’s appreciative of the support he’s received from Pelosi and thinks the Republican attacks against her are unfair.
“I think that if you dive into the policy details, she’s not nearly the extremist people make her out to be,” he said. “But the reality is that we’re losing. And the American people out there are demanding a change.”
Moulton even says many Pelosi supporters have encouraged him in private.
“Do you know how many of them have come up to me and said, ‘Stop doing what you’re doing’? Exactly zero,” he told Kruse. “Do you know how many people who even voted for her [in last fall’s caucus tally] have come up to me and checked to make sure no one’s listening and then patted me on the back and said, ‘Keep it up’?”
Moulton did not give a number, but the implication was clear.
“All I did was just say publicly what everybody else is saying privately, and stand by it, and defend it,” he said.
That’s at least more than his own critics can say.
3. He drinks a lot of milk.
Kruse writes that his first meeting with Moulton was at the Ugly Mug Diner in Salem. And with his lunch, the 38-year-old ordered a milk.
“Milk?” I said.
“I love milk,” Moulton said. “I always drink milk.”
He told me he used to down seven glasses a day in grad school. Now he just has it with every meal if he can. Moulton drank the milk and ate a tuna melt and outlined the beginnings of his “perfect résumé.”
Moulton’s milk order was also noted during a recent Commonwealth magazine interview. And, coincidentally, he isn’t the only ascendant young Massachusetts congressman with an affinity for the beverage.
