“Doddering,” he “folded like a paper napkin” — liberals in the past week have hurled all sorts of insults against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the government funding fight, and some are suggesting Senate Democrats should replace him and find new leadership.
“I’m about to change my registration to independent,” MSNBC host Symone Sanders said on air this weekend as she excoriated Schumer. “The Democratic Tea Party was born the same day that Chuck Schumer folded like a paper napkin.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), one of the most prominent young faces of the Democratic Party, said last Thursday.
After the New York Democrat backtracked last week and did not oppose the GOP spending measure to keep the federal government funded, liberals — from MSNBC to Congress — are getting fed up with him. Many Democrats, particularly in the House, argue that Schumer surrendered their only political leverage to slow down the Trump administration’s gutting of the federal government and the social safety net.
“I think we gave up our leverage,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said on the “This Is Gavin Newsom” podcast Tuesday.
“It is about what comes next,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), one of Schumer’s closest allies, said at a news conference Tuesday. “I myself don’t give away anything for nothing. We could have, in my view, perhaps gotten them to agree to a third way, which was a bipartisan CR [continuing resolution].”
The chorus of criticism and limited defense of Schumer included House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) last Friday initially not saying whether Schumer should stay on as Democrats’ Senate leader. All the anger represents the biggest challenge yet to Schumer’s usually broad support from congressional Democrats, as they wonder whether the 74-year-old should step down.
For his part, Schumer has defended his decision, arguing that fighting the GOP spending bill could have led to a government shutdown, which “would have been a far worse consequence,” and could have allowed President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to fire even more federal employees and gut the government.
