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\n

Chuck Schumer is facing one of the most perilous moments of his\u00a0<\/b>Senate leadership career.<\/p>\n

The Senate minority leader came under heavy fire for the second straight day from Democrats enraged at him for backing a Republican bill to avoid a government shutdown, and fallout appears likely to last well past Friday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n

A handful of House lawmakers, including some in battleground districts, are floating supporting a primary challenge against him. Activists are organizing efforts to punish him financially. Schumer is facing questions within his own caucus about whether he made strategic errors in handling the high-stakes moment and failed to outline a clear plan about how to deal with the complex politics of a shutdown, according to interviews with six lawmakers or their aides. Some Democratic senators are even privately questioning whether he should stay on as their leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done a great deal of damage to the party,\u201d said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the liberal group Indivisible, which has scheduled an emergency call Saturday with its New York chapter and other local leaders to \u201cseriously consider if the current [Democratic] leadership is equipped to handle the moment we\u2019re in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a remarkable sign of how deep the intraparty frustration with Schumer runs, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries refused to throw his fellow New Yorker a life raft. Asked by reporters on Friday if there should be new leadership in the Senate, he said, \u201cNext question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumer\u2019s one-time partner, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), went so far as to urge senators to vote against his position<\/u><\/a>, saying that \u201cthis false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable.\u201d And dozens of House Democrats sent a sharply worded letter<\/u><\/a> to Schumer Friday, which expressed \u201cstrong opposition\u201d to his standpoint, arguing that the \u201cAmerican people sent Democrats to Congress to fight against Republican dysfunction and chaos\u201d and that the party should not be \u201ccapitulating to their obstruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though several senators said they supported his leadership, some Senate Democrats avoided questions when asked directly Friday about whether they continued to support him in the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have more to play out on this,\u201d said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). \u201cSo I\u2019m not really thinking about the big-picture politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) also dodged, saying: \u201cThe leader I don\u2019t have confidence in is Donald Trump.\u201d And Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) responded to a query on whether he still supports Schumer by calling for a \u201cgood post-mortem\u201d on Senate Democrats\u2019 approach to the government funding fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you have a failure \u2014 and this is a failure altogether \u2014 we as a caucus owe it to Democrats across the country and our constituents to look back and see: How do we get ourselves into this situation?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One Democratic senator granted anonymity to share private discussions said conversations are starting about whether Schumer should be their leader going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of concern about the failure to have a plan and execute on it,\u201d the senator said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you couldn’t figure out that this is what was going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The frustration toward Schumer reflects a boiling anger among Democrats over what they view as their party\u2019s lack of a strategy for taking on Trump in his second term. Though few in Democratic circles think Schumer\u2019s job as minority leader is at risk \u2014 and he isn\u2019t up for reelection until 2028 \u2014 the frustration toward him spans the party\u2019s spectrum, from moderates to progressives, both in and outside of Congress.<\/p>\n

Schumer has defended his vote to keep the government running as the best of two bad choices aimed at not ceding Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk even more power to slash the government. Nine Democratic senators and an independent who caucuses with Democrats joined him to advance the bill, enough to prevent a government shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cA government shutdown gives Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE almost complete power as to what to close down, because they can decide what is an essential service,\u201d Schumer said in a BLN interview. \u201cMy job as leader is to lead the party, and if there’s going to be danger in the near future, to protect the party. And I’m proud I did it. I knew I did the right thing, and I knew there’d be some disagreements. That’s how it always is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he is not concerned with his leadership position: \u201cI have the overwhelming support of my caucus. And so many of the members thanked me and said, \u2018You did what you thought was courageous, and we respect it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But behind closed doors, even some longtime Schumer allies are raising the specter that his time has passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiden is gone. Pelosi is in the background. Schumer is the last one left from that older generation,” said one New York-based donor who is a longtime supporter of the leader. \u201cI do worry that the older generation thinks 2024 was just about inflation, but no, the game has changed. It’s not left wing or moderate, it\u2019s everyone now saying \u2014 the game is different now. But he was set up to battle in 2006, and we’re a long way from 2006.”<\/p>\n

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said \u201cactive conversations\u201d are taking place among liberal groups about how to make Schumer pay. He said Schumer will likely face protests over his support for the GOP bill at his tour stops next week for his new book \u201cAntisemitism In America: A Warning.\u201d But he said the effort to hold him \u201caccountable\u201d will not end there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to be made an example of to enforce Democratic backbone going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And it’s far from just progressives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not seen such uniting anger across the party in a long, long time,\u201d said Charlotte Clymer, a Democratic operative associated with the moderate wing of the party who launched a petition to boycott donations to Senate Democrats until they force Schumer out as minority leader. \u201cSen. Schumer has managed to unite us far more than Trump has in recent months.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the GOP bill advanced Friday, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar said in a statement that \u201cwe need more leaders from the stand and fight wing of the Democratic Party.\u201d MoveOn warned that the liberal group\u2019s \u201cmembers will be demanding answers from their elected officials\u201d about the vote. The progressive organization Justice Democrats sent a text to supporters reading \u201cF*ck Chuck Schumer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on Friday, dozens of protesters organized by the Sunrise Movement descended on Schumer\u2019s office in the Hart Senate building holding signs that read: \u201cSchumer: step up or step aside,\u201d demanding he reverse course on supporting the bill. The group said 11 people were arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to reckon with the fact that young people, working-class people, people of color \u2014 the backbone of the Democratic Party \u2014 are moving away from the party,\u201d said Stevie O\u2019Hanlon, the organization\u2019s political director. \u201cChuck Schumer is part of that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, some Democratic senators publicly stood by Schumer on Friday.<\/p>\n

Asked if people are urging her to run for Schumer\u2019s job, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), said, \u201cNo, no,\u201d adding, \u201cI\u2019m doing my job today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is retiring after this term, called Schumer \u201ca good leader.\u201d Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) told reporters he still has confidence in Schumer in the top role.<\/p>\n

Others acknowledged the difficult position Schumer found himself in as he attempted to steer his caucus through a lesser-of-two-evils situation without the same simple-majority cover that Jeffries had in the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to be the leader,\u201d said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).<\/p>\n

With reporting by Emily Ngo and Hailey Fuchs.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chuck Schumer is facing one of the most perilous moments of his\u00a0Senate leadership career. The Senate minority leader came under heavy fire for the second straight day from Democrats enraged at him for backing a Republican bill to avoid a government shutdown, and fallout appears likely to last well past Friday\u2019s vote. A handful of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}