Chuck Schumer has given Senate Democrats an out — drastically lowering the chances of a government shutdown Saturday.

The Senate minority leader, both privately to his caucus Thursday and in a floor speech shortly after, said he would vote to advance a GOP-written stopgap to fund the government through September. He said Republicans’ spending bill is “very bad.” But he argued the “potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse” and would empower President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to further gut federal agencies.

It’s a remarkable shift. Just 24 hours before, Schumer had said Senate Republicans didn’t have enough Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold to advance House Republicans’ continuing resolution, or CR.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has now teed up that procedural vote for 1:15 p.m. — and indicated he’d be willing to give Democrats a poised-to-fail vote on a four-week stopgap as part of a deal to speed up passage for Republicans’ CR. All 100 senators would have to green-light that, and as of Thursday evening, Schumer said there was no time agreement.

Republicans need eight Democrats to join them to advance the CR. There are at least two on board: Schumer and Sen. John Fetterman, who has for days been saying he wouldn’t vote for a shutdown.

But even as Schumer gave Democrats cover, a handful announced or reiterated their “no” votes after his speech. Several have yet to publicly weigh in.

The backlash to Schumer’s call was swift. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries didn’t criticize Schumer directly in private comments to his caucus but said House Democrats “stood on the side of the American people.” And Rep. Jim McGovern said he was “extremely disappointed.”

“It gives them the ability, Elon Musk the ability, to go through and continue to do the shit he’s doing,” McGovern added.

What else we’re watching:

• Trump backs John Thune’s tax plan: Trump indicated to GOP senators during a private meeting Thursday that he supports the Senate majority leader’s plan to use a controversial accounting method that would make trillions of dollars in tax cuts appear to cost nothing — a move that would make it easier to advance the president’s other tax priorities. But House hard-liners remain skeptical of the idea, even as Speaker Mike Johnson has increasingly indicated he’s open to it.
• Crypto bill advances: Senate Banking on Thursday approved digital assets legislation that would create a regulatory structure for stablecoins, marking the first time a Senate panel has ever advanced major crypto legislation. It was one of Congress’ most significant steps yet toward giving the crypto sector a long-sought stamp of legitimacy that could turbocharge its growth. Five Democrats voted for the GOP-led legislation, despite strong opposition from the top Democrat on the Banking panel, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
• Ted Cruz pushes NIL regulations: The Senate Commerce chair plans to hold hearings and markups on regulating college athletes’ ability to profit off their personal brand — what’s commonly referred to as name, image and likeness issues — and said he’s building bipartisan support on it. Lawmakers are showing increased interest in the topic: House Judiciary is planning a roundtable on it next month.

Meredith Lee Hill, Benjamin Guggenheim, Jordain Carney, Jasper Goodman and Ben Leonard contributed to this report.

The Democratic base wants a fight. Chuck Schumer won’t give it to them.

The Senate minority leader on Thursday backed away from the shutdown confrontation that many liberal voters and activist leaders had been pushing for — arguing that closing the government would only empower President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk in their bureaucracy-slashing campaign.

That decision sent shockwaves through the left and had many in their ranks seething at a top party leader who had sought to win them over in recent years.

Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of the liberal grassroots organization Indivisible, quickly dubbed it the “Schumer surrender.”

“I guess we’ll find out to what extent Schumer is leading the party into irrelevance,” he said in an interview, adding that his decision “tells me maybe he’s lost a step.”

The news that the top Senate Democrat would be backing down dejected scores of House members who were gathered at a resort about 25 miles outside of Washington for the Democratic Caucus’ annual policy retreat.

They had stuck together behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had wrangled all but one of his members to oppose Republicans’ seven-month funding patch earlier in the week.

“Extremely disappointed,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said after he heard the news. “It gives them the ability, Elon Musk the ability, to go through and continue to do the shit he’s doing.”

And further outside Washington, longtime party activists and high-dollar donors fumed about Schumer: “He sucks,” one state party chair who was granted anonymity to respond candidly, adding that the cave constituted “political malpractice.”

In anticipation of the criticism he was certain to receive, Schumer delivered a 10-minute speech on the Senate floor defending his decision, later holding a question-and-answer session with Capitol Hill reporters and publishing a New York Times op-ed.

His points were two-fold: First, a shutdown would play into Trump and Musk’s hands, he argued, allowing them to continue with their slash-and-burn campaign overdrive. His second argument was more political — and in keeping with his long history as a leading strategist counseling his party to pay heed to the concerns of America’s middle class above all else.

“For Donald Trump, a shutdown would be a gift,” Schumer said. “It would be the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda.

“Right now, Donald Trump owns the chaos in the government. He owns the chaos in the stock market,” he added. “In a shutdown, we would be busy fighting with Republicans over which agencies to reopen, which to keep closed, instead of debating the damage Donald Trump’s agenda is causing the American people.”

Some Democrats offered some sympathy, given the dilemma he and other senators faced. The GOP-written stopgap cuts some $12 billion in domestic funding while adding money for migrant deportations and some other programs Democrats oppose. It also contains no language that would stop the Trump administration from continuing to hold back congressionally approved spending.

But Schumer argued there was no telling what Trump and Musk would do in a shutdown, where the White House would “have full authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel non-essential, furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired,” he said.

“I don’t think he had a choice,” Democratic National Committee member Joseph Paulino Jr. said, adding that Democrats “don’t have any cohesive plan. They don’t have a strategy. They don’t have any clear direction where they want their … opposition to go.”

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, called it a “challenging” choice for Schumer even as she called a temporary shutdown “a better option than passing a bad bill.” She predicted blowback from grassroots activists but demurred on how lasting it might be.

“There will be strong reactions,” she said. “But the exact consequences, I think it’s too soon to know.”

Prior to Schumer’s remarks, progressive groups were encouraged by the succession of Senate Democrats who had publicly announced opposition to the GOP funding measure. More than a dozen did so Thursday, many of them echoing the language used by activists.

“I don’t want a shutdown but I can’t vote for this overreach of power, giving Trump and Musk unchecked power to line their pockets,” said Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey in an online post.

Joel Payne, the chief communications director at MoveOn, called the moment “pretty disappointing,” adding that it crystallized for many in Democratic activists that Schumer and other Democratic leaders may not be equipped for fighting a more brazen, second-term Trump.

“I think it does say a little something about whether or not these folks truly understand the fight that we’re in right now,” Payne said. “And I think that’s a question that a lot of folks are asking.”

The irony is that Schumer had spent much of the past five years patching up his relationship with the Democratic Party’s left flank. Once known as a friend of Wall Street interests and an ally of moderates, he faced similar criticism as minority leader during the first Trump term, then retooled his reputation after becoming Senate majority leader in 2021 — embracing the expansive pandemic-era spending plans of President Joe Biden and winning converts among liberals.

Now Schumer is facing sharp backlash from some of Biden’s top advisers. His former top domestic policy adviser, Susan Rice, told Schumer to “please grow a spine. And quickly.” Neera Tanden, who held the same top policy job, expressed exasperation after Schumer told reporters Trump would be more unpopular — and Democrats would be better positioned to fight — in the fall.

“HE’S UNPOPULAR NOW,” she responded on X. “LORD!”

Schumer did not take any incoming fire from his fellow Democratic leader and Brooklyn native, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Speaking to his members at the retreat, Jeffries told them that their votes were “something they can be proud of now and tomorrow and years from now” but did not criticize Schumer directly, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the private remarks.

“We stood up against Donald Trump. We stood up against Elon Musk. We stood up against the extreme MAGA Republicans,” Jeffries said in a statement. “We can defend that vote because we stood on the side of the American people.”

A leader of the Democratic left in the House was not as oblique. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — often mentioned as a potential primary rival for Schumer — said on BLN Thursday that Schumer had made a “tremendous mistake.”

“To me, it is almost unthinkable why Senate Democrats would vote to hand [one of] the few pieces of leverage that we have away for free,” she said.

Asked Thursday to respond in advance to possible calls for new Democratic leadership in the Senate, Schumer said he made a “tough choice … based on what I thought were the merits.” (None of his Senate colleagues, notably, joined in the firestorm of criticism.)

“You have to make these decisions based on what is best for not only your party but your country, and I firmly believe and always have that I’ve made the right decision,” he continued. “I believe that my members understand that … conclusion and respect it.”

Mia McCarthy and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

LEESBURG, Va. — House Democrats privately and publicly steamed Thursday evening about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to back passage of a GOP spending patch they had fiercely opposed.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said he was “extremely disappointed,” while Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) called it a “gut punch.” Some Democrats attending the yearly Democratic policy retreat here went so far as to privately hope that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) would launch a primary challenge against Schumer — though he’s not up for re-election until 2028. Some centrist lawmakers even quipped about cutting checks to Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told his caucus behind closed doors that they could be proud of their decision to vote against the stopgap funding bill. He did not mention Schumer.

“Dr. King once made the observation that, although everyone may not see it at the moment, the time is always right to do what’s right,” he said, according to a person in the room. “This week, House Democrats did what was right. We stood up against Donald Trump. We stood up against Elon Musk. We stood up against the extreme MAGA Republicans.”

Jeffries received a standing ovation from his caucus. He and other Democratic leaders later said in a joint statement that “House Democrats will not be complicit” and “remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate.”

It was part of a split-screen reality for House and Senate Democrats over the past 48 hours, since House Republicans managed to muscle through their seven-month stopgap.

Over the first two days of their retreat in Virginia, House Democrats urged the Senate to follow their lead and stop the bill. All but one House Democrat had opposed the bill. Meanwhile, Democratic senators were wrangling with a tougher choice — unlike in the House, some in their ranks would have to put up votes for any shutdown-averting bill, greatly raising the stakes.

Still, lawmakers expressed little sympathy. “Democrats were elected to fight for working people, not put up a fake fight,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Progressive Caucus.

Separately on Thursday evening, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addressed House Democrats gathered at the Lansdowne Resort for a closed-door discussion with Jeffries, drawing a warm reception from the lawmakers.

The three governors all represent states won by President Donald Trump in 2024 and have tacked to the center at home.

The lawmakers also heard from presidential pundits including James Carville, Bill Clinton’s strategy maven, and Dan Pfeiffer, Barack Obama’s communications director, among other experts who are advising the minority party.

“We’ve got to show the American people that we’re focused on their worries when they wake up in the morning and go to bed at night,” Beshear told reporters earlier Thursday. Democrats had to focus on “core concerns” to earn back voters’ trust, he said.

He also criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to put former Trump strategist Steve Bannon on his podcast, telling reporters: “Steve Bannon espouses hatred and anger and even, at some points, violence, and I don’t think we should give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere.”