The eight Senate Democrats who joined with Republicans to end the Democratic Party’s government shut down had liberals of all stripes bent out of shape. During Monday’s The Arena on CNN, podcaster Chuck Todd whined that “Democrats are going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here” and equated Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) leadership of the caucus to that of washed up NFL coaches. He was joined by a far-left New York Times journalist who whined Democrats were not pointing guns at Republicans.
Host Kasie Hunt played a soundbite of Schumer on The View from March trying to make the case for why he should remain the leader of the Democratic caucus, citing his purported ability to win Senate seats, but Todd wasn’t buying it. “I sort of equate him to Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick, two guys that have won Super Bowls and they were really good ten years ago,” he quipped.
Todd then dinged Schumer for not adequately trying to spin the eight Democrats getting loose under his watch as a play to make Democrats seem like “the adults in the room here” ahead of the holidays:
Look, a better leader could sell this deal. This is not capitulation. This is a pause. You could make – easily make the case. We’re not going to let him take snap benefits away. And we’re not going to let Sean Duffy, you know, screw up the air traffic – air traffic system in this country during the important holidays. So, we’re going to be the adults in the room here. We’re going to pause this. And we’ve got a vote in January. And if they refuse to do this, we’ll shut this [pauses] government down again until they do this.
“But the problem is Chuck Schumer doesn’t have credibility with the left, and he doesn’t now have credibility with the pragmatic wing because he somehow got these people,” Todd huffed. “I mean, he is the one that I think is making this look worse.”
Chuck Todd laments that “Democrats are going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here” with reopening government.
He chides Schumer’s leadership by “equat[ing] him to Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick, two guys that have won Super Bowls and they were really good ten years… pic.twitter.com/X4P6lqHZ0S— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) November 10, 2025
Todd proceeded to bloviate about how Democrats were flushing away all the political wins they had just racked up by making people suffer through the government shutdown:
TODD: I mean, somehow Democrats are going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here. They’ve won. They’ve gotten more out of this shutdown than I expected them to get. They’ve got healthcare front and center. They’ve got their party fired up.
HUNT: They’ve just won big time.
TODD: They’ve got Donald Trump making ridiculous – I mean, going to court to stop SNAP benefits seem to be bad politics. Okay. We can discuss the – you can have a longer term issue about that just seem to be bad short term politics.
He did acknowledge that Democrats were playing a dangerous game since the air-traffic controller situation could end up with many dead people:
And the risk – This is like you’re – I’m going to do another metaphor. You’re at the blackjack table. Things are going great. You can keep going and think, I’m going to keep getting good cards. And if there’s one air traffic accident, all of a sudden, all the goodwill that you think you’ve been winning here goes away. It’s easy to be on the coast and think you’re winning. Go be a real American having to deal with this.
Further in the conversation, far-left New York Times journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro said she felt that Schumer “was toast.”
During a time of politically motivated violence and multiple assassination attempts against conservatives and Republicans, NYT journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro on CNN whines Dems not pointing guns at the right:
“I think it is predictable that the Democrats are deciding to stab each… pic.twitter.com/fNFy6aqdse— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) November 10, 2025
She also used disturbing rhetoric whining that Democrats were too busy “deciding to stab each other” and were not taking “aim at Republicans.” “And I think that going forward, what is going to happen is that they will live to fight another day,” she griped.
It was an ominous thing to complain about given all the deadly political violence directed at conservatives and Republicans these days.
The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:
CNN’s The Arena
November 10, 2025
4:14:10 p.m. Eastern(…)
KASIE HUNT: It may be vitally important, but does he [Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)] still know how to do that in this current environment?
CHUCK TODD: Look. I don’t think so. I sort of equate him to Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick, two guys that have won Super Bowls and they were really good ten years ago. And I think this is a case where he’s a bit out of touch.
Look, a better leader could sell this deal. This is not capitulation. This is a pause. You could make – easily make the case. We’re not going to let him take snap benefits away. And we’re not going to let Sean Duffy, you know, screw up the air traffic – air traffic system in this country during the important holidays. So, we’re going to be the adults in the room here. We’re going to pause this. And we’ve got a vote in January. And if they refuse to do this, we’ll shut this [pauses] government down again until they do this.
But the problem is Chuck Schumer doesn’t have credibility with the left, and he doesn’t now have credibility with the pragmatic wing because he somehow got these people. I mean, he is the one that I think is making this look worse.
I mean, somehow Democrats are going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory here. They’ve won. They’ve gotten more out of this shutdown than I expected them to get. They’ve got healthcare front and center. They’ve got their party fired up.
HUNT: They’ve just won big time.
TODD: They’ve got Donald Trump making ridiculous – I mean, going to court to stop SNAP benefits seem to be bad politics. Okay. We can discuss the – you can have a longer term issue about that just seem to be bad short term politics.
And the risk – This is like you’re – I’m going to do another metaphor. You’re at the blackjack table. Things are going great. You can keep going and think, I’m going to keep getting good cards. And if there’s one air traffic accident, all of a sudden, all the goodwill that you think you’ve been winning here goes away. It’s easy to be on the coast and think you’re winning. Go be a real American having to deal with this.
(…)
4:18:18 p.m. Eastern
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think he’s toast. I think the minute that the airplanes weren’t flying anymore, this was a foregone conclusion. I think it is predictable that the Democrats are deciding to stab each other instead of trying to aim at Republicans. And I think that going forward, what is going to happen is that they will live to fight another day. And none of this is resolved. And I don’t think that this is good for Republicans either. And I think everyone comes out of this, as I’ve always said, quite wounded.
(…)
