Congress
‘Full of despair’: Senate Dems look to regroup after losing shutdown fight
Senate Democrats are bracing for a painful post-mortem as they try to avoid a September rerun of their latest government funding defeat.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and nine of his members helped get a House GOP-authored government funding bill to the finish line, saying a vote to advance legislation they loathed was the least bad option. The alternative, they argued, was allowing a shutdown that could empower Trump and Elon Musk to accelerate their slashing of the federal bureaucracy.
This was the first time since the start of Trump’s second administration that the party had real leverage to fight the president, as Republicans needed Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster. Democrats could have refused to put up those votes to avert a shutdown, but Schumer folded instead. This gambit is now raising internal questions about how Democrats will handle the next shutdown deadline at the end of September — and how they can avoid the same result.
Schumer’s strategy exposed major fissures within the party, marking for many of his members a disappointing retreat. It’s also raised questions among some Democrats about whether it’s time for the New Yorker to step aside — though no senators have publicly embraced those calls.
“We should do a retrospective,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). Asked whether his party lost some of its clout by acquiescing to the GOP’s funding bill, Gallego said: “That was my concern.”
Senate Democrats have already started discussing privately how to avoid getting rolled again. They bet this month that House Republicans would never be able to pass a stopgap funding bill without Democratic support, and Democrats hoped they could leverage that failure into a bipartisan deal. That assumption backfired when Speaker Mike Johnson called their bluff, sending the Senate a funding patch that passed the House with only one Republican opposing it.
“We were just talking about that,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said when asked how the party will pursue the next funding fight. “We’ve got to come up with a plan.”
Some Democrats are now afraid that they inadvertently gave Republicans a playbook for government funding fights in the future: Cut Democrats out of the negotiations, muscle legislation through the House with only GOP votes and bet they can jam the Senate. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) pointed to that possibility as he laid out his frustrations after the Senate cleared the funding measure Friday night, warning that Democrats set a “really dangerous precedent” and questioned “why would Republicans work with us” going forward.
This isn’t the first time Democrats have found themselves divided as they learn how to navigate the return of the Trump era. But with a second funding battle looming, not to mention a potential brawl over the debt ceiling, Democrats are warning that they need to quickly find a foothold that unites their caucus and its disparate voices while also delivering results.
Democrats say they need to have a blunt conversation about how much political risk they are willing to absorb to fight Trump, including blocking unrelated legislation or symbolic opposition to nominees. Some Democratic senators are floating holding a series of rallies and town halls to try to build public support for opposing Trump.
“I think our caucus needs to work through how we are going to coordinate a common message and approach,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.).
Senate Democrats spent a lot of time last week agonizing over how to handle the government funding fight in closed-door meetings; some became so heated that senators could be heard shouting in the Capitol hallways. Schumer gave his colleagues room to air their grievances, which included complaints about the lack of a clear strategy. But he also encouraged them to not outwardly lean into a shutdown threat in the lead-up to the House vote that he hoped would fail.
Many Democratic senators were frank in the final days before the vote that they were barreling toward a lose-lose situation. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) called the two choices Democrats faced — supporting the House GOP bill or driving the government into a shutdown — “full of despair.”
A Senate Democratic aide, granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said there was a “very clear split in strategy” between Schumer and other senior Democrats ahead of Friday’s vote. The aide said that there needs to be a “reset” heading into the funding fight this fall.
“The leverage point still exists,” the aide added. “It’s just a matter of using it.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have been gloating over Schumer’s missteps. The Democratic leader warned from the Senate floor last week that the House bill did not have the votes to advance in his chamber, only to say the next day that he would help get it over a 60-vote procedural hurdle. Several Republican senators and even Trump complimented him for helping advance the funding bill, even as he ultimately opposed it on passage vote.
Schumer has defended his strategy, arguing that as leader of the caucus he has to make politically painful decisions to protect both his members and the country from what he viewed as a worse alternative: The possibility of a prolonged shutdown with Trump and Musk in the driver’s seat. Schumer privately warned his members ahead of last week’s vote that if the government shut down there was not a clear offramp out of one, and that Republicans could potentially try to cherry pick which parts of the government to reopen.
Schumer, in a sit-down with reporters last week, acknowledged that Republicans could try to jam them again in September. But Schumer said he’s betting that Trump’s actions and policies will make him less popular, which could splinter congressional Republicans in the coming months and give Democrats a “decent chance” at more leverage heading into September negotiations. Other Democratic senators indicated they feel similarly.
“With the failed Trump economic policies, with a market that continues to wobble at best … I think a lot of this is going to start bubbling up,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).
Katherine Tully-McManus, Lisa Kashinsky and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.
Todd Blanche took a major step toward confirmation as attorney general Tuesday after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 on party lines to advance his nomination, likely setting up a final vote within days.
His nomination, at risk of being withdrawn just last week, now appears to be on a glide path toward approval. Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since April, but President Donald Trump has been intent on installing his former personal lawyer permanently.
Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said ahead of the vote that Cornyn and Tillis’ concerns about the fund “and the IRS settlement were shared by many, including this senator.” He added that the changes Blanche made “put this issue to bed once and for all.”
Democrats lambasted the deal Cornyn and Tillis struck, saying it would not meaningfully bind Trump from eventually resurrecting the payout fund and using his to enrich his political allies, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“To state the obvious, Mr. Blanche’s statement on the slush fund and the IRS immunity agreement are not signed by the parties to the settlement agreement and are therefore unenforceable,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel. “The parties could still sue to enforce the agreement and the cop-beaters fund can easily be revived with a new order from the Department of Justice 15 minutes after Mr. Blanche is confirmed as attorney general.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said he “loves the state of Texas” but said the deal Cornyn agreed to is “all hat and no cattle.”
Booker, who is a vegan, asked, “Where’s the beef?”
Outside of the committee, there are a few GOP senators who could pose a hurdle in confirming Blanche, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. John Curtis of Utah and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
Murkowski called the written elimination of the payout fund a “pretty good step” Monday, while the others said they continue to evaluate Blanche’s nomination.
All four have yet to commit to voting for Blanche, and as long as all Democrats are unified in voting against him, he can only lose two Republican votes given the absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has not voted since June due to health reasons.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he wants to get Blanche confirmed before senators leave as soon as the end of this week for an extended recess.
A lawyer for Rep. Max Miller took responsibility Tuesday for inadvertently releasing sensitive photos of the Ohio Republican’s daughter in a trove of material Miller published Sunday in a bid to defend himself against domestic abuse claims.
The attorney, Aaron Minc, took responsibility for the photo being released and called it “completely unintentional and a mistake” after a lawyer for Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno, accused Miller of disseminating the daughter’s name and one image that “could be considered Child Sexual Abuse Material.”
“I am solely responsible for what happened,” Minc said in a statement. “I was the only person responsible for assembling, creating, reviewing, adding, deleting, redacting, or making any changes to the information and files that were in this folder.”
Minc apologized to Miller, Moreno and their families but also decried Moreno for creating “a media spectacle regarding this unfortunate mistake … as a means to try to gain leverage in court and distract from the underlying evidence that exonerates Mr. Miller from the false allegations he is accused of.”
Miller posted the documents online Sunday after delivering a livestreamed defense against the claims leveled by his former wife, Emily Moreno. He has declined all allegations of wrongdoing, which include pouring hot water on his ex-wife, holding a gun to her head and breaking his daughter’s collarbone.
Moreno’s lawyer Subodh Chandra claimed that the documents left the daughter’s name unredacted and contained “private images,” including one where “the daughter’s genitals appear to be visible,” according to a letter to Minc obtained by Blue Light News. Chandra noted that the photo was later removed.
“The post with the link to the folder — published under your name — garnered over 204,000 views from the time it was posted until this afternoon,” Chandra wrote.
The letter from Chandra asks Minc, “Whose idea was it to share this intimate image of the child?” among other questions, giving a Wednesday close-of-business deadline.
The letter marks the latest escalation in the legal battle between Miller and Moreno, who is the daughter of Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno. After Miller delivered his livestreamed defense Sunday, the GOP senator denounced his former son-in-law, saying he should not serve in the House and needs to seek professional help.
Miller is running for reelection in a competitive Cleveland-area seat. He has until Wednesday to withdraw from the ballot and allow for a crash primary to replace him.
Senate Republicans are facing a put up or shut up moment to move ahead with a party-line bill this week.
Those who want to advance a budget blueprint now will use Tuesday’s GOP closed-door lunch as a last-ditch effort to rally their colleagues behind what’s guaranteed to be a politically heavy lift. But prospects are waning with each passing hour, as lawmakers face a slew of other priorities, including plotting the path for a stopgap funding patch.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday it’s possible members stay through the weekend or return next week to knock out lingering tasks, delaying the start of a five-week recess.
“It looks to me at least like there’s a good possibility that it’ll take us more than Thursday or Friday to get through the things we have to get through,” he told reporters.
Budget Republicans are meeting separately Tuesday morning to talk about advancing a framework in the Senate, but Chair Ron Johnson declined to say Monday whether he would release a budget resolution this week — a necessary step for the chamber to make any movement forward.
Johnson said he’s “working with leadership,” who he acknowledges has been prioritizing government funding.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Kennedy told reporters Monday he didn’t expect any budget resolutions on the floor this week because “I don’t think my leadership wants to do it.”
“As I’ve said before, you got to have the votes to get on it,” Thune said Monday, while stopping short of nixing the possibility of a vote this week.
Thune also may need to deal with GOP hard-liners demanding votes on the SAVE America Act as frustration percolates over whether the budget measure’s election provisions comply with Senate rules for the reconciliation process.
Sen. Roger Marshall joined Sen. Mike Lee Monday in saying the chamber shouldn’t depart without passing the elections bill, and Marshall said he’d be willing to object to adjourning the chamber over it.
What else we’re watching:
— BLANCHE HAS MORE REPUBLICANS TO CONVINCE: Todd Blanche’s prospects for confirmation as attorney general were much improved Monday — but he’s not in the clear yet. The acting attorney general secured votes from the previously reluctant Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis over the weekend, all but certainly giving him the votes he needs to advance out of Judiciary Tuesday morning. But he still needs to get through the full Senate, where he can only lose two Republican votes given likely unified opposition from Senate Democrats and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence.
— GOP SENATORS BREAK SILENCE ON MILLER: Multiple Senate Republicans are calling for Rep. Max Miller to step down from office amid domestic abuse allegations. The outcry comes after Sen. Bernie Moreno — father of Miller’s ex-wife, Emily Moreno — said in a statement Sunday Miller should not serve in the House. Miller has denied the allegations. The surge of support from Moreno’s colleagues marks the first significant crack in a wall of GOP silence regarding the claims. Miller has until Wednesday to withdraw from the ballot and allow a crash primary to select a replacement.
Jordain Carney, Chris Marquette, Riley Rogerson and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
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