House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday repeatedly refused to defend Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer or answer a question about whether it was time for new leadership in the Senate, after the Senate Democratic leader said he will not block Republicans’ government funding bill.
“Is it time for new leadership in the Senate?” a reporter asked Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, during an impromptu news conference in the afternoon.
“Next question,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries’ response — and the sudden news conference after House Democrats were supposed to be at a retreat — underscored tensions between House and Senate Democrats as a growing number of Democrats in the lower chamber have lambasted Schumer’s move.
For months, congressional leaders in both parties have been working on finding an extension to government funding, which will expire Friday at midnight. Appropriations bills are typically at least somewhat bipartisan, but, after a breakdown in negotiations, Republicans settled on a more ideological bill opposed by most Democrats. House Democrats, many of whom were already itching for a fight over the mass cuts and layoffs executed by the Trump administration through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), responded by voting almost unanimously against the bill earlier this week (just one member on each side broke with their party). Democrats soon shifted their attention to the Senate, hoping their party would deny Republicans the votes they need to advance the bill due to the filibuster.
On Thursday, however, Schumer announced that he would vote to advance the bill, which initially seemed to end the prospect of either a shutdown or showdown. Instead, there was revolt: Democratic senators increasingly announced they would not follow their caucus’ leader; liberal influencers and commentators slammed Schumer, with some calling for him to face a primary challenge in 2028; and, in an extraordinary move, House Democratic leadership released a statement that denounced his position. Jeffries and other House Democratic leaders took pains in the news conference to not directly call out Schumer and Senate Democrats — alleging they disagreed with Schumer not blocking the funding measure but were united in opposing DOGE and Trump and wanting to avoid a government shutdown. Democrats have argued that Republicans’ spending bill would further green-light DOGE to gut the federal government, and they have railed against the measure calling for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending over a decade.
