A defiant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that he will not step down from his leadership role any time soon while strenuously defending his decision to vote against blocking a GOP bill to avert a partial government shutdown.
Schumer (D-NY), 74, who has been facing a progressive revolt over his shutdown vote earlier this month, reiterated that he “did this out of conviction” and fired back at detractors such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a pretaped interview that aired Sunday. “I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was. People disagree.”
Critics, from both the moderate and far-left wings of the party alike, contended that the government shutdown fight was a rare instance when Dems had leverage to extract concessions from Republicans.
At noon on Sunday, New York City progressives are set to hold a rally organized by the Big Apple chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America demanding Schumer step down from his leadership post due to his actions in the shutdown fight.
Similar protests against him have popped up across the country, particularly in New York and Washington, DC. The longtime senator was forced to postpone his book tour last week in response to security concerns over the demonstrations.
One of the most prominent detractors against him was Pelosi, 84, who publicly threw shade at Schumer, noting how she doesn’t “give away anything for nothing.”
“What we got, at the end of the day, is avoiding the horror of a shutdown,” Schumer countered. “There was no leverage point that we could’ve asked for things. They just would’ve said no.”
Republicans had passed their bill to avert a partial government shutdown — known as a continuing resolution (CR) through the House of Representatives. That was the first time the GOP passed a CR through the House without needing Dem support. All but one House Dem voted against it.
The GOP has a 53-seat majority in the Senate but lacks the 60 votes needed to overcome a Dem filibuster. Therefore, they would’ve been unable to pass the stopgap measure without Dem defections. Schumer was joined by nine others.
Schumer has lived through multiple government shutdown fights during his more than two-and-a-half decades in the Senate and felt that his party wasn’t in a position to win.
The Empire State pol’s main argument against blocking the GOP bill to keep the government’s lights on is that a partial shutdown would’ve enabled the Trump administration to make even steeper cuts to spending.
Many Democrats had wanted to leverage the shutdown fight to rein in Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team and win other concessions from President Trump.
But Schumer argued that a partial shutdown would’ve played right into their hands. He also rejected the assertion from critics that he acted like former President Joe Biden.
“No, absolutely not. I did this out of conviction,” Schumer shot back when asked if he was making the same mistake as Biden. “Our caucus is united in fighting Donald Trump every step of the way.”
Schumer reiterated his belief that the US is hurtling toward a constitutional crisis under President Trump’s watch given the commander in chief’s aggressive use of executive power and battles with the courts.
“Yes, I do,” Schumer said of a constitutional crisis. “And democracy is at risk. Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him.
“Now we have to fight that back in every single way,” he continued. “This is an extraordinary moment. It does require extraordinary action. If he defies the Supreme Court, then we are in uncharted territory that we haven’t been in for a very long time.”
The embattled senator has at least one ally in his corner amid the vote backlash.
“I think Sen. Schumer was right. He brought in the extra votes to get to 60, which the Senate needed to move … the budget. The Republicans were able to hold firm, and they got their two-vote margin in the House. Had [Schumer] not done it, then Democrats would have been blamed for shutting the government down and called irresponsible and more names than that,” former New York Gov. and state Democratic chair David Paterson said on 770 WABC radio’s “Cats Roundtable” with John Catsimatidis Sunday.
Schumer’s latest tome, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning” hit bookshelves last week and the minority leader has been out doing interviews to promote it.
In his book, he talked about his time becoming the highest-ranking elected Jewish official in US politics — which he believes someone will soon top.
“I think that’s possible,” he said of a Jewish person becoming president. “America in general, you know is, we’re a beautiful people. Glass ceilings are broken every day.”
