Politics

Schumer bashing has gone mainstream

Published

1 year ago

March 19, 2025

The Senate Democratic leader said it himself on cable news on Tuesday night. By siding with Republicans on the government funding bill, Chuck Schumer knew members of his own party would come out against him.

But what may have not have been expected was how quickly the criticism spread beyond the left flank.

Just this week, Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland told constituents “it may be time for the Senate Democrats to get a new leader,”Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz aired frustrations, and one of Schumer’s longtime allies, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, dropped the hammer on him.

“I myself don’t give away anything for nothing,” Pelosi told reporters Tuesday during a news conference at a children’s hospital in San Francisco, her second time addressing Schumer’s vote. “I think that’s what happened the other day.”

Five days after the vote, Schumer bashing is going mainstream — continuing a drumbeat of criticism that first started when he announced he would join Republicans, eight other Democrats and one independent, to advance the bill to fund the government.

What began with activist groups and progressive members of Congress, has moved toward both the party’s political center and the nation’s heartland – including to possible 2028 contenders. The criticism comes as the party struggles to find ways to push back against a Republican stranglehold on power in Washington.

Illinois’ Pritzker said “I disagree with what he did and vehemently so,” following a talk at the Center for American Progress. Walz, the former vice presidential nominee, said Democrats “gave up their leverage” in an appearance on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast.

And then there was Pelosi.

By piling on Tuesday, Pelosi “gave everybody a permission slip to carry on,” said one Democratic strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the situation.

And they did.

“I respect Chuck Schumer. I think he had a great, long-standing career,” Ivey (D-Md.) told an audience that included many government workers Tuesday night. “But I’m afraid that it may be time for the Senate Democrats to get a new leader.”

In an interview with BLN’s Chris Hayes Tuesday night, Schumer not only defended his decision as necessary to prevent the hurt a shutdown would bring to American workers, but also touted his own political prowess.

“I’m a smart politician, I can read what people want,” Schumer said, emphasizing that a while Republicans put forward a “terrible, terrible, bill,” a shutdown would have been “so much worse.”

“I couldn’t tolerate it, I couldn’t live with it,” he added.

He isn’t the only Democrat making the calculation — about the bill or his political standing. In Pelosi’s home state, Darry Sragow, a Democratic strategist, insists that these types of disagreements are just business as usual for Democrats.

“That’s just what we do,” he said. “You know, we’re this dysfunctional family that agrees on one thing; and that is that we want to protect the interests of ordinary, working Americans.”

Schumer hit cable again Wednesday morning, working to shift the focus to the party’s messaging against President Donald Trump.

“Now we can really go after him, let the public know who he is,” Schumer said on BLN’s “Morning Joe.” “Once they know who he is, show them what we have done and want to do.”

Schumer’s Senate colleagues, too, are quick to dismiss the idea that he should be removed as leader. But even some of them have expressed concern that members need more guidance.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Schumer “can lead the caucus.”

However, he added, Democrats “need to have a conversation inside the caucus about whether we are willing to stand up to Republicans.”

Danny Nguyen contributed to this report.

Politics

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

Published

3 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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