The minority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, defended himself to stem government shutdowns in the face of Democrats’ backlash over his decision to vote with Republicans to pay the government’s shutdown on Friday, saying he is willing to take a political hit to protect his members and their components from a long-term disaster.
On a day of white and enthusiastic rage among many Democrats and activists, some of them gathered outside Schumer’s Brooklyn home to protest his decision to scale back from the shutdown fight, and the fifth term senator shrugged the prospects of major challenges that could cost him his job, saying he was doing the right thing.
Due to the government shutdown, “There are no off-ramps,” Schumer said in an interview from his office just off the Senate on Friday. “The off-ramp is in the hands of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Doge. They can be shut down for six or nine months.”
He sees his work as a leader and tries to avoid the consequences by taking a long vision.
So for now, Schumer said, “I’ll take some bullets.”
Criticism was quickly furious on Friday.
House Democrats, including some of the party’s most senior members, and progressive activists, characterized Schumer’s attitude towards spending measures as a shameful surrender to Trump and the GOP.
A grassroots Democrat group passed a torch where former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was upset last summer to end his campaign, and urged Senate minority leaders to step aside Friday morning.
“Chuck Schumer is reluctant to meet at that moment and cannot meet,” the group said in a statement. “His only job is to fight against the maga fascists’ acquisition of our democracy. Instead, he makes it possible directly.”
The call comes the day after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat in New York, refused to rule out a major challenge against Schumer and said CNN had a “deep sense of anger and betrayal” about his decision on the pending bill.
(Schumer pushed the concept aside in an interview, saying, “It’s four years away,” adding that his focus was on the fight in front of him, and that he regained a majority in 2026.)
Previously, Trump congratulated Schumer on being “doing the right thing” with a heavy political death kiss.
“Non-pass will become a rural destroyer. Recognition will bring us to new heights,” he wrote on social media. “Again, a really good and smart move by Senator Schumer.”
Many of his colleagues personally confirmed Schumer is in leadership on Friday.
In an interview, Schumer said his two stages of spending measures — he came out against him on Wednesday and said he would come out just to backtrack on Thursday, allowing him to move — is a negotiation tactic aimed at giving Democrats the maximum leverage in their fight against the law.
“Our job was to help Hakeem prevent the bill from passing,” he said. But to the surprise of members of both parties, the House GOP gathered behind a temporary spending plan and either accepted it to Senate Democrats or blamed it on shutdowns.
Faced with this choice, Schumer said the fight over funding for government was determined by Democrats to only disrupt a much bigger fight.
“It’s much more effective than discussing back and forth about who is causing the shutdown,” Schumer added. “My internal gyroscope says I’m right.”
But the backlash was fierce, at the moment liberal activists and Democrats were eager to see the leader oppose Trump.
Even former speaker Nancy Pelosi, an old partner in Schumer’s leadership, suggested he made the wrong call. She issued a contest statement Friday that didn’t name Schumer, but said Trump and Elon Musk had set a “false choice” between government shutdowns or blank checks to cut catastrophic cuts all at once.
“This false choice I’m buying instead of combat is unacceptable,” she said. “I pay tribute to leader Haquem Jeffries, who encouraged and refused this false choice, and I am proud of my House Democrat Caucus colleagues in an overwhelming vote on the bill.”
House Democrat leaders have been on the victory tour since Monday, and have managed to consolidate their members almost entirely by opposing the fundraising bill. In doing so, they increased pressure on Senate Democrats.
“I don’t know why someone is supporting that bill,” said California’s president Pete Aguilar, a third House Democrat in California. “Elon Musk and Donald Trump have already systematically shut down the federal government. I don’t know why we want that part.”
“Next question,” Jeffrey said at a press conference Friday, when asked if it was time for new leadership in the Senate.
Rep. Richie Torres, a New York Democrat, said he cut the lane for himself as a practical progressive thing, but he said he was worried about living to regret his strategic miscalculation of Schumer writing on a massive scale. He said the funding bill “represents the best (and perhaps only) leverage that we, as Democrats, have to prevent systemic decimation of Donald Trump’s social safety net.”
But their vote in the House was easy. Along with Republicans united by Trump to support the bill, Democrats had no vote to stop it in the room. In the Senate, at least eight Democrats will have to vote for all Republicans to clear the filibuster. The photos were more complicated.
Within the Senate Democrats’ Caucus, members recognize it and don’t want to criticize Schumer. Some praised him for allowing members to vote “No” while personally hoping the bill would be passed.
Some of them agreed to Schumer’s claim that the closure would empower the Trump administration to deem the entire agency and the program “essential,” not bring them back and not bring staff back. In the interview, Schumer used food stamps as an example. “The day after the shutdown, they can say that every snap isn’t essential. We’re not funding it,” he said. “In a shutdown, it’s only the administrative agencies that decide what is essential and what is not important. There is no court check.”
Some members expressed confusion over why the government was shut down in March just a few weeks after the new administration.
“Did you have leverage?” Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat of Colorado, said he plans to oppose the bill that the GOP described as a blatant grab for power, “we had two horrifying options.”
“Chuck Schumer is in a very difficult place,” Hickenlooper added. “He made a real, difficult decision. His supporters in New York are also a big part of the base. He knew how to attack, but he still made the decision. He deserves my respect.”
But Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, was unstoppable by Schumer’s reversal and continued to oppose the ongoing resolution or bill known as “CR.”
“In this case, she said on the Senate floor on Friday: “The CR represents a ‘complete resignation.’ ”
