Politics

House Democrat puts Schumer on notice: ‘Get right’ or get out

Published

1 year ago

March 19, 2025

A normally even-keeled Democratic congressman wants Chuck Schumer to feel the heat. If the Senate minority leader doesn’t adopt a tougher line in the next big Washington negotiation, Rep. Glenn Ivey said, “maybe he needs to go.”

Ivey spoke to Blue Light News Wednesday morning, hours after facing a raucous town hall in his suburban Washington district, where he first suggested that Schumer should consider stepping aside. Ivey expanded on his view of the top Senate Democrat — and delivered an ultimatum amid the widespread frustration with the party leadership’s approach to opposing President Donald Trump.

“If he can get himself together and come — you know, get right on this vote and we get another shot at it, okay,” Ivey said. “But if he’s going to do the same thing again when this bill comes up six months from now, we can’t afford that.”

Ivey, a second-term Congress and member of the House Appropriations Committee, expressed confidence in his own caucus leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who was able to persuade all but one Democrat in the House to vote against a Republican-drafted spending bill. But Ivey said the fissures that were exposed when the two Democratic leaders took separate approaches to measure were unacceptable and can’t happen again.

“We’ve got a limited number of shots at being able to fight back against the Trump administration and what they’re doing,” Ivey continued. “We can’t afford to miss the moment again.”

“Hakeem met the moment last week,” he added. “Schumer missed it.”During Ivey’s town hall Tuesday inside a crowded high school auditorium, he faced a series of pointed questions about Democrats’ ability to push back on the Trump administration, as well as his own ability to fight for his constituents — many of whom identified themselves as federal workers or contractors impacted by the Trump administration’s mass firings and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to slash government spending. They also lobbed broader questions over why the party doesn’t have a clear strategy.

A few jeered when Ivey repeatedly pointed to the midterm elections next year as the party’s best opportunity to constrain Trump. This enraged some in the crowd, with some heading for the exits before the town hall officially wrapped, telling this reporter on the way out the door that they weren’t hearing enough.

Ivey pushed back on those characterizations, which rankled many in the audience. The congressman, whose district includes much of majority-Black Prince George’s County, said he understood the frustration from constituents, but reiterated there are few levers for Democrats to pull while they are in the House minority.

During the interview, he praised several House Democrats for taking the lead in standing up to Trump and pushing party leaders to fight hard. They included Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, as well as Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the top Oversight Committee Democrat, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Ivey admitted these elected officials don’t always exhibit the type of “fire and brimstone kind of stuff” some in the Democratic base want to see.

“Everybody doesn’t have to do the same temperament, everybody doesn’t have to do the same messaging,” he said, “as long as they’re doing what they need to do to win their seats.”

Politics

DC is about to pick new leaders. Trump is watching.

Published

9 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Washington will soon enter a new chapter after voters pick the capital’s first new mayor in a dozen years and its first new Congressional delegate since 1991. And no matter who wins Tuesday’s primaries, they’ll be on a collision course with President Donald Trump.

The frontrunners in both races have hinged their campaigns on opposition to Trump, who since returning to office has chipped away at Washington’s autonomy and sought to remake parts of the city in his image. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has led the city since taking office in 2015, has taken a pragmatic approach to working with the president in an apparent effort to avoid further furor. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has represented the District since 1991 and condemned Trump’s actions in strongly worded statements, but the 89-year-old has dodged the spotlight amid questions about her acuity and ability to serve.

The candidates running to replace them say that’s far from enough.

In interviews with Blue Light News, those leading candidates emphasized that they hoped to find common ground with the Trump administration and coordinate where possible, especially on projects that could jumpstart Washington’s sluggish economy. But they all drew a red line at Trump’s extraordinary law enforcement actions, including sending in the National Guard indefinitely and surging federal immigration agents in coordination with local police.

“Washington, D.C., residents want and deserve a mayor who’s going to stand up and fight back, and that’s what I’m bringing,” said Kenyan McDuffie, a relatively moderate, pro-business former D.C. Council member who is polling second in the mayor’s race. He has pledged to end coordination between the Metropolitan Police Department and ICE on his first day in office.

Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. council member who is polling more than 10 points ahead of McDuffie, has taken an even more adversarial posture against the president. She told Blue Light News she would “actively tell our employees to resist” if Trump again federalized the MPD, adding that she would work with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb “to defend D.C.”

Trump is already making known his displeasure — particularly with Lewis George, a democratic socialist whose platform and campaign are reminiscent of those of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Asked last week about the possibility of Lewis George winning the primary, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “I wouldn’t like it.”

“Maybe we’ll take back Washington, run it on a federal basis,” he continued. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not gonna lose our businesses.”

Lewis George’s campaign almost immediately cut Trump’s comments into an ad. “Look, we’re not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president,” she said in response. “We’re not going to protect our rights, or Home Rule, by complying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you don’t like how residents are voting is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect their mayor, and they want someone who’s gonna stand up to Donald Trump.”

There’s a similar sentiment among the leading delegate candidates.

Robert White, a city council member and one of two frontrunners in the delegate race, described Trump’s surge of federal agents and National Guard troops to the city as “lawlessness” and “the opposite of public safety.” He said he would seek to build a coalition in Congress to “push back in every way.”

Brooke Pinto, a fellow council member and the other delegate frontrunner who has centered public safety in her campaign, said the administration’s use of National Guard troops and ICE agents have not helped the city. “While I am very committed to advancing public safety in the District of Columbia, what we’re seeing from the Trump administration undermines those efforts,” she said.

That type of messaging is politically savvy in a city with an electorate that heavily supported Kamala Harris in 2024 and whose lives have been directly impacted by the president’s grip over Washington — from the troop surge to his sweeping cuts to government programs and razing of the federal workforce, which have severely contracted the District’s economy. That’s not to mention his efforts to splash his name and face across federal buildings, and mounting moves to beautify portions of the city and stand up ambitious architectural projects.

“When politicians try to interfere with our local public safety, when they are sweeping up unhoused residents, cutting jobs, when they are pushing policies that negatively affect our local economy and driving up overall costs of everything from gas to housing, I’m going to fight back,” McDuffie said.

But it sets the candidates — whoever wins — in explicit opposition to Trump, who has consistently sought to bring his enemies to heel whenever he gets the chance. The president has several levers at his disposal if he chooses to retaliate against Washington, from another federal law enforcement surge to using his influence over Congress to weaken D.C. Home Rule. The city also depends on the federal government for high-profile projects that would improve public spaces and bring jobs to the District, including upgrades to Union Station and the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus.

Asked how the White House is preparing for a potentially more adversarial mayor and delegate, a spokesperson referred Blue Light News back to Trump’s Oval Office comments.

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