Tag: chuck schumer
Chuck Schumer

'Delusional': Schumer Under Growing Pressure After Hayes Interview

Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in an attempt to cauterize the self-inflicted wound from his decision to help Republicans pass their “CR,” continuing resolution, last week—a move backed by President Donald Trump—may have only deepened what some rank-and-file Democrats see as a crisis of leadership.

In what some are calling a “devastating” interview on Tuesday evening with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, the Democratic leader appeared unwilling to grasp the full extent of the current threat level to American democracy, that our democracy is now at a crossroads—a fact well-documented by experts on democracy, and proclaimed by a Democratic U.S. Senator—and struggled to acknowledge that the nation is facing a constitutional crisis.

Trying to defend what is being seen as a lack of strategy, an inability to grasp the gravity of this moment in American history, and a refusal to fight the battle that is actually before him, Schumer made his argument to Hayes.

President Donald Trump’s approval “numbers have started to go down, from 51 to 47. If we keep at it and keep at it and keep at it, his numbers will be much lower. He will not only be less popular, but less effective,” Schumer insisted.

Schumer additionally claimed that “we will find the moments where we shouldn’t give them votes.”

But Schumer was sitting in Hayes’s studio exactly because he did give Republicans votes. He canceled his book tour that was supposed to start this week, reportedly due to security threats, and instead has been hitting the talk shows and cable news defending his decision — and his leadership position.

“There’s this weird asymmetry right now,” Hayes observed, noting that Republicans “are acting in this totally new way, in which they are ambitiously trying to seize all power and create a presidential dictatorship in the United States of America, and the Democratic opposition is acting like, ‘Well, if we can get their approval rate down a few points.’ Then what? Then what happens?”

“Well,” Schumer, still in defensive mode, declared, saying that “what happens is, look, first, we get it way down, he’s gonna have much like we—this worked in 2017.”

For some on social media, that appeared to be the inflection point—the moment that Schumer exposed that he is using the old playbook that the Trump administration, MAGA, The Heritage Foundation, and Project 2025 burned long ago.

“You say now it’s a different government,” Schumer acknowledged.

“It’s different, though,” Hayes pressed.

“Oh, it is different, but health care: we beat them. Taxes: we beat them, and guess what we did? Guess what we did, Chris? We took back the House and won in the Senate, and that got and then we were allowed to do all those good things.”

Hayes also honed in on Schumer’s 2017 reference.

“I don’t disagree with that, but the difference to me between 2017 and now,” he explained, is that it “is a full-fledged assault on the Constitutional order that has not been seen.”

And Hayes asked, “but then the question becomes, what is the role of the minority in resisting that, that’s distinct from ‘we’re gonna beat them on health care, we’re gonna beat them on spending with Medicaid.'”

Then Schumer said, “If our democracy is at risk—”

“It is at risk,” Hayes declared.

“Sorry. It is certainly at risk,” Schumer acknowledged, after Hayes made that declaration, but then he ignored Hayes’s question: “Do you believe” it is at risk?

Schumer moved on, appearing to say that if the federal courts ultimately fail to hold Trump, “we’ll have the court of public opinion, and if that happens, as you pointed out, we have had rule of law since the Magna Carta, okay?”

“The people will have to rise up, not just Democrats, not just Republicans, not just, you know, people everybody. But our democracy will be at stake then,” he said, again, not appearing to grasp that, as experts say, it is right now.

“And if the people make their voices heard as strong and stand up, and we join them, I believe we can try to beat that back.”

“We can beat that back, but it’s it’s it’s up on that one, if democracy is at risk, that’s a little different than what we’re talking about now — even a shutdown as horrible as it is.”

“We’ll all have to stand up and fight back in every way,” Schumer concluded.

Critics, and rank-and-file Democrats, and some elected Democrats, say the fight should have started when Trump was elected.

The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a noted political scientist, responded to a clip of Hayes’ interview with Schumer, declaring, “Chuck is delusional.”

That word has repeatedly surfaced.

“‘This worked in 2017’ is all you need to hear. I can understand Schumer’s logic on the shutdown, but he’s delusional if he thinks that’s a winning strategy,” observed Cosmopolitan editor Olivia Truffaut-Wong.

“You know, I watched Sen. Schumer on Chris Hayes and really tried to hear him defend his actions in good faith,” wrote Charlotte Clymer, a former Human Rights Campaign press secretary who has called for Schumer to resign, “but by the end of their discussion, it just felt impossible for me to avoid this very deep sense of dangerous foreboding. Big ‘tempting fate’ energy in the worse way. Honestly scary.”

One day before Schumer’s MSNBC interview, Clymer on Monday had already made the case for “Why Chuck Schumer Should Step Down.”

“We have lost our way not because of what we believe in,” she wrote, referring to rank-and-file Democratic voters, “but because of our party leadership’s reluctance to fight for what we believe in.”

Sam Seder, the progressive political commentator and host of “The Majority Report with Sam Seder,” declared Schumer’s interview with Hayes was “devastating for Schumer. ..ignoring the criticism from all corners of the party..can’t articulate a strategy. It’s bizarre. He thinks it’s 2017.”

He also wrote that Schumer was “trying to justify his lack of leadership and strategy on his failed dirty CR. He’s panicked and should be. He is not up to the era. Instead of fighting against every other Democratic leader he should resign for the sake of the country.”

Emma Vigeland, Seder’s co-host, wrote that Hayes “nailed Schumer at the end of tonight’s interview by getting him to equivocate about whether or not we are currently at risk of losing our democracy. This is entirely out of step with how the base feels and saying this on MSNBC could (and should!) cost him his leadership.”

Elected Democrats are starting to break their wall of silence and call for Schumer to resign as Senate Democratic Leader.

Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) on Tuesday, as C-SPAN reported, said: “I was deeply disappointed that Senator Schumer voted with the Republicans. You know you’re on bad ground when you get a personal tweet from Donald Trump thanking you for your vote…I’m afraid it may be time for the Senate Democrats to pick new leadership…”

Christopher Webb, a social media political commentator with a strong multi-platform following, posted edited video of the interview and also called it “devastating.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Polls: Voters Angry At Democratic Leaders (But They Don't Love GOP Either)

Polls: Voters Angry At Democratic Leaders (But They Don't Love GOP Either)

Two new polls indicate that Democratic voters are continuing to lose faith in their party as leadership struggles to respond to President Donald Trump.

An SSRS poll for CNN released Sunday found that only 29 percent of adults view Democrats favorably, marking a new low in CNN’s polling since 1992 and a 20-point drop since January 2021. Even Democrats and left-leaning respondents were less enthusiastic about their party, with just 63 percent favorability—down from 72 percent in January.

This starkly contrasts with the survey’s Republican and right-leaning respondents, who reported 79 percent favorability of the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, a second survey released Sunday by NBC News revealed that 27 percent of registered voters hold a positive view of Democrats—the lowest rating recorded in the outlet’s polls since 1990. And merely seven percent of respondents indicated a “very” positive view of Democrats.

While NBC’s poll also found that the Republican Party has a net negative image—49 percent of voters view it unfavorably and 39 percent view it favorably)—it noted that the GOP could at least take comfort in controlling both chambers of Congress and the presidency. Democrats, however, have to cling to the hope that their party might reclaim maybe one chamber of Congress in 2026.

Both surveys suggest that the lack of support for the Democratic Party stems from its own voters feeling fed up. Not only have they witnessed their party’s loss to Trump in 2024, but now they face Democratic leaders attempting to compromise with the president—something Republicans would never consider if the roles were reversed.

As top Democrats continue to bend a knee to Trump, he and Elon Musk have taken a hatchet to the federal government, making massive cuts via the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

The results of these surveys come as Democrats continue disagreeing on the best way to govern. Over the weekend, progressives—and even some lawmakers from the party’s more moderate wing—harshly criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for conceding to Trump on the GOP-backed government spending bill.

After the House passed a partisan spending bill, Schumer and nine other Senate Democrats voted for cloture on Friday, ending a filibuster of Republicans’ detrimental funding bill. The bill proposed significant cuts to the federal budget while increasing defense spending by approximately $6 billion.

Schumer has defended his decision, even amid calls for him to step down or be replaced. But it remains unclear who he is trying to please. Some of his party members are weary of him, and now the public is shifting their support away from him, too.

In the SSRS poll for CNN, 57 percent of Democrats and left-leaning respondents expressed a desire for the party to focus on obstructing Trump’s agenda, compared to 42 percent who favored working with the GOP.

And NBC reported a similar finding: 65 percent of self-identified Democratic voters want their party to “stick to their positions even if this means not getting things done in Washington.”

Only 32 percent indicated a desire for Democrats to compromise with Trump, which marks a complete reversal from where Democrats stood in 2017, when 59 percent wanted members of Congress to seek consensus on policy.

These numbers may get worse over time, as both polls were largely or wholly conducted before the standoff over the government funding bill. Still, the results underscore how much Democratic voters are itching for their party to play at least some form of defense.

“I’m scared that compromising will lead to the downfall of our democracy, to only be slightly hyperbolic. It’s really scary to see the things being done, the things being slashed left and right without any regard for the outcome,” a Democratic voter and survey respondent told NBC.

These findings also align with a series of polls released last week, which suggest that Democratic voters view their party as ineffective and lacking direction.

Nevertheless, some Democratic leaders appear content to acquiesce to Trump rather than push back. And in doing so, they are alienating voters.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Chuck Schumer

Senate Democrats Poised To Reject Plutocratic GOP Budget Bill

House Democrats are calling on their colleagues in the Senate to reject the GOP-passed spending bill—and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he’s got the votes to do just that.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input—any input from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said Wednesday. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House.”

The Republican-led House caved to President Donald Trump and co-president Elon Musk Tuesday, passing a spending bill that would force $880 billion over 10 years in cuts from social safety net programs like Medicaid. The move is a naked attempt to extend GOP tax cuts for the rich at the expense of working-class Americans.

While Republicans were able to pass the bill in the House with the vote of only one Democrat, it’s a different story in the Senate, where Republicans will need Democrats to help them. And so far, they’re not getting it.

“They should refuse to allow this bill to pass in the Senate,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, warned her Senate counterparts on Tuesday. “If they don't, I think there's going to be a huge backlash from across the country. And I think, all of them will, you know, will have to deal with the consequences of that.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was also clear about her feelings on the matter. “The Republicans have the White House, the Senate, and the House. If they want to do this, and if they want to screw over the American people, they can do this with their votes and their party. I do not believe that Democrats should participate.”

“Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez on her social media account, adding that voters should “Tell them: 1. Vote NO on Cloture AND 2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill. Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it.”

Maybe Schumer and his fellow Senate Democrats have been getting those calls from voters—and at least for now, they seem to be listening.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

RFK Jr. And Trump Risk Health Of 9/11 Heroes With Callous Staffing Cutbacks

RFK Jr. And Trump Risk Health Of 9/11 Heroes With Callous Staffing Cutbacks

New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a letter to newly appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, condemning the recent “nonsensical and dangerous” 20% staffing cuts to the World Trade Center Health Program. The cuts jeopardize the ability to deliver health care to those suffering from 9/11-related health conditions, including respiratory ailments and cancers.

The letter urges Kennedy to reverse the staffing cuts and requests a briefing from the HHS and the CDC on the changes made to the WTCHP and their direct impact on the program's capacity to serve enrollees. The letter also called out Kennedy’s hypocrisy, citing a former conversation he had with the senators before his confirmation where he vowed to protect 9/11 access to care.

One of the first responders, John Feal, whose organization FealGood Foundation helps 9/11 responders access financial aid programs and treatment for 9/11-induced illnesses, appeared on New York’s News 12 on Sunday to speak out against the mass firing. Feal called the cuts “inhumane.”

"The World Trade Center Health Program is a lifeline to 137,000 people—9/11 heroes, volunteers, and those who lived, and worked and went to school in Lower Manhattan," Feal said. "And these people now who are dealing with severe respiratory illnesses, severe cancers—there's over 30,000 people with a certified cancer. That means when those people are cut and no longer work for the federal government, they cut 20% of that staff. That staff is responsible for certifying people's illnesses, that staff is responsible to ensure that there’s no fraud, that staff is responsible to ensure that research continues."

Feal added that he and a group of first responders and political leaders will head to Washington, D.C., next week to lobby for the $3 billion needed to fund the WTCHP through 2090.

Schumer took to X on Tuesday to tell his constituents he’s fighting on their behalf.

“The Trump HHS is breaking the sacred promise to always stand by our 9/11 heroes by slashing funding and vital staffing for their healthcare in the World Trade Center Health Program,” he said. “It’s unacceptable. I’m fighting to get Secretary Kennedy to reverse these cuts and firings NOW to provide for those who answered the call of duty on 9/11.”

This comes as Kennedy, under the direction of the White House and Elon Musk’s chaotic Department of Government Efficiency, fired an estimated 3,600 public health employees across the National Institutes of Health, CDC and Food and Drug Administration over the weekend, prompting employees to call it the “Valentine’s Day massacre.”

DOGE has taken it upon itself to gut the federal government. In less than a month, it has conducted mass firings or buyouts of government agency employees at the United States Agency of International Development, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Education, the FBI, and the CIA.

Whether it’s hypocrisy or pathetic fealty to Trump, courageous Americans who risked their lives to save others on 9/11 deserve the care they now need—not to be cast aside by a president and his billionaire ally intent on dismantling human decency.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Corona Virus

Trending

World