Chuck Schumer Digs In His Heels and Says He’s the ‘Best Leader’ for the Senate

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is insistent: He’s not going anywhere.

“Here’s what I say: I’m the best leader for the Senate,” Schumer said on “CBS Mornings,” after days of fury from outside progressive groups and House Democrats for his vote to help Republicans advance the government funding bill. “I am the best at winning Senate seats.”

When asked if he was going anywhere, Schumer said: “No.”

Protestors have been outside Schumer’s New York home — and his D.C. and New York offices — since his announcement that he’d advance the Republicans’ bill. He’s had to postpone his press tour for his new book “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” citing security concerns. A number of his rank-and-file Democratic senators have tried to back him up.

“The unknowns that would have come with a shutdown, where there may have been some who wouldn’t even have wanted the government reopened,” Sen. Mark Warner said last week. “I understand what Chuck is doing.”

But progressives are livid. Joseph Geevarghese, the executive director of the staunchly progressive Our Revolution, argued Democratic leadership should have used its leverage in preventing a shutdown to make change.

“The problem, I would argue, in this moment within the Democratic Party is that there’s multiple centers of gravity,” he said. “There’s no unifying figure. I would also argue there is no unifying message that interprets what’s happening in this moment.”

Another progressive group said its leadership shared their concerns with Schumer.

“MoveOn has communicated our members’ concerns to the Leader’s office about the lack of strategy and message around the Republican funding bill vote and the desire from our members for Democrats to use every bit of their power to fight back against Trump and Elon’s endless corruption and gutting of Medicaid and Social Security,” Britt Jacovich, spokesperson for MoveOn, told NOTUS.

Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met Sunday in Brooklyn to discuss “the path forward,” Jeffries said Tuesday. And despite not defending Schumer on Friday, Jeffries told reporters at an event Tuesday he supports Schumer’s leadership in the Senate.

“Yes ... yes I do,” he responded when asked at a press conference in Brooklyn for Democrats’ Medicaid Day of Action if he supported Schumer staying in leadership.

And while some Democratic members are defending him, plenty are not — or are staying pointedly quiet.

A number of House Democrats are openly seething over Schumer’s vote, with some calling on him to step down. At a town hall Monday in Arizona, Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly declined to directly answer a question on whether Schumer could continue to lead the caucus.

It’s an unusual position for Schumer, who’s led Senate Democrats since 2016.

Hardly anything changed for the Democrats’ Senate leadership after last year’s disastrous elections. Schumer held his throne. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin retained his position. Schumer allies Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Cory Booker shifted into leadership after retirements. There were no surprises or challenges to committee chairmanships. It was, in many ways, business as usual.

That’s a testament to the iron grip Schumer’s had on his caucus for years. Like other Democratic leaders in Congress, Schumer has rarely dealt with the sort of raucous caucus issues that have plagued Republicans in the House — and occasionally in the Senate.

Sure, there were some tricky years of recently departed Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema holding up Democratic legislation. But in the grand scheme of things, their interjections were rare.

This year has been different. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has managed to keep his 53-member majority largely in unison — and put multiple bills on the floor meant to squeeze Democrats. Some, like the immigration-related Laken Riley Act, have prompted Democrats to split amongst themselves.

And as the Trump administration goes on, and with almost two years before Senate Democrats can try to regain the majority, Thune is likely to box-in Democrats on government funding or other legislation plenty more.

Schumer told reporters last week that he’s hopeful the next round of government funding will be different.

“A lot of these Republican appropriators don’t like what happened. But they’re so afraid of Trump, they went along,” Schumer said.

“They just bowed down to the president and they surrendered their power,” he added. “But whether that will happen in September — I think there’s a very good chance Trump will not have the strength and popularity, and we might get them to work with us.”

Many other Democrats are also facing the heat for their government funding votes.

Both campaign arms for House and Senate Republicans are targeting vulnerable Democratic incumbents who voted against the bill; one video from the National Republican Senatorial Committee against Sen. Jon Ossoff said the Democrat “voted for a reckless government shutdown.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee is running a slew of ads targeting dozens of House Democrats, accusing those who voted against the government funding bill of potentially “ripping away paychecks from Border Patrol, the military and law enforcement.”
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Daniella Diaz and Ursula Perano are reporters at NOTUS. Katherine Swartz contributed reporting.