Progressive Democrats are angry that the shutdown ended on Wednesday night after the House passed a clean short-term spending bill and President Donald Trump signed it into law without extending the expiring Obamacare subsidies.
While the vote was bipartisan in both houses of Congress, the overwhelming majority of Democrats on Capitol Hill voted against reopening the government. But the shutdown was effectively ended earlier this week once eight senators who caucus with the Democrats broke ranks and voted for a deal that would fund government operations until early next year.
Schumer wasn’t among the eight senators, but still caught most of the blame anyway. The thinking was that he was either tacitly in favor of the deal, which was brokered by his deputy, retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), or powerless to keep the caucus together and stop it.
Neither scenario reflected well on Schumer’s leadership, according to many Democrats.
“We are talking about a coordinated effort of eight senators with the knowledge of Leader Schumer, voting to break with the entire Democratic Party in exchange for nothing,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), a possible Schumer primary challenger, complained to CNN.
Schumer also caught flak from outside progressive groups. “Chuck Schumer should step down as Senate Minority Leader immediately,” Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, said in a statement. “If he secretly backed this surrender and voted ‘no’ to save face, he’s a liar. If he couldn’t keep his caucus in line, he’s inept. Either way, he’s proven incapable of leading the fight to prevent health care premiums from skyrocketing for millions of Americans. The country can’t afford his failed leadership any longer.”
“If this was Schumer’s best, his best clearly isn’t good enough,” said Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee in a message to donors. “The legacy of Chuck Schumer is caving, not winning.”
“On November 9, Chuck Schumer surrendered in the fight for affordable healthcare, supplying Republicans the votes necessary to advance a budget that will cause premiums to double and triple for millions of Americans,” said the left-wing group Indivisible. “This was not a capitulation by the entire Democratic Caucus. But the betrayal extends beyond the eight Democrats who voted yes. The fact that the group was comprised entirely of Senators who are retiring or who won’t face primaries for several years points to these Dems giving cover to a larger faction eager to throw in the towel. … Despite his ‘no’ vote, the entire political world knows this is a direct result of Chuck Schumer’s leadership.”
Indivisible closed its missive against “Schumer’s second massive capitulation to the Trump regime” by urging supporters to contact Democratic senators to urge them to call for Schumer to step down as minority leader and allow someone else to lead the opposition to Trump.
That’s unlikely to happen anytime before next year’s midterm elections. But Schumer will become an even bigger issue in the Democratic primaries.
“This happened because Chuck Schumer failed in his job yet again because they do not understand that when we fight, we win. When we hold the line for working families, for working people, we win. But they don’t get this. They see all of this as a game,” said Graham Platner, a progressive seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). “Call in today, call your senators. … Call your senators and say that Chuck Schumer can no longer be leader.”
This was Schumer’s unenviable position throughout the shutdown. To Republicans, it was the “Schumer shutdown.” However, many Democrats questioned Schumer’s resolve from the beginning, as he had led a group of 10 senators from his caucus in voting to keep the government open in March.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) squared the circle by holding up a copy of the Washington Examiner magazine, depicting the left-wing revolt against Schumer in March. “The far Left base has turned on Chuck Schumer because he did the responsible thing and put the lights on,” Johnson said. “Why? Because they want him to show a fight against President Trump. So Schumer doesn’t want to be in this situation again.”
But it didn’t appease the left wing of the Democratic Party, which believed winning the off-year elections validated their strategy and made the case for keeping the government shut down longer, even with holiday meals and travel rapidly approaching. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who held out against the shutdown on all 15 Senate votes, later said Schumer was “discovering that you can’t get back into the good graces of the Indivisible folks.”
TRUMP RAGES AT DEMOCRATS AND THE FILIBUSTER IN SIGNING BILL TO END GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
A handful of Democrats were unwilling to continue to inflict that kind of pain on their own constituents and provided just enough votes to break the Senate filibuster.
Yet that may not be enough cover for Schumer, who, with the announcement that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will retire from Congress in 2027, is the last member of the old guard still standing. For now.
