WASHINGTON — A defiant Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer vowed that he won’t step aside as the chamber’s top Democrat, rejecting calls from some House colleagues and liberal advocates critical of his move to help pass a Republican funding bill.
“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a taped interview that aired Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Schumer told moderator Kristen Welker he knew there “would be a lot of controversy” when he cast his vote to prevent a shutdown. But he maintains that while the GOP’s six-month bill was “certainly bad,” a shutdown “would be 15 or 20 times worse.”
“Under a shutdown, the executive branch has sole power to determine what is ‘essential.’ And they can determine without any court supervision. The courts have ruled it’s solely up to the executive what to shut down,” he said, warning that the Trump administration “would eviscerate the federal government.”
“On Day 2, they could say, ‘Oh, SNAP? Feeding hungry children? Not essential.’ On Day 4, ‘Mass transit? All transit? Aid to the states? Not essential. We’re cutting it.’ On Day 6, ‘Medicaid? We’ll cut that by 20%, 30%, 50%, 80%. We’ll go after Social Security. We’ll go after the veterans.’ Their goal is to just eviscerate the federal government so they can give more taxes, and their tax cuts ... to their billionaire class over there,” he said.
“Sometimes when you’re a leader, you have to do things to avoid a real danger that might come down the curve. And I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was. People disagree.”
It’s up to Democratic senators to choose their leader, and none of them have called on Schumer to quit a post that he has held for more than eight years. But some have entertained questions about whether it’s time for a re-examination. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., told a constituent at a town hall last week that “we’re going to have future conversations about all the Democratic leadership.”
Schumer also rejected comparisons to then-President Joe Biden’s refusal to step down as the 2024 nominee, in response to a question about whether he’s making the same mistake.
“No, absolutely not. I did this out of conviction. And, look, in my caucus, we have a disagreement as to, you know, some people voted one way, some people voted the other. But we’ve all agreed to respect each other because each side saw why the other side felt so strongly about it. And our caucus is united in fighting Donald Trump every step of the way,” Schumer said.
NBC News has reported that some Democrats hope progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., launches a primary bid against Schumer in 2028 if he decides to seek re-election.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said in an interview Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that the decision was Ocasio-Cortez's to make, adding, "There were a lot of people at the Democratic retreat who had encouraged her, and I was just in New York, and I was surprised how much support there is."
"The American people are fed up with the old guard. There needs to be a renewal. In Silicon Valley, when a company isn’t doing well, you don’t keep the same team," Khanna added.
Schumer responded Sunday to a suggestion from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former House speaker, that the Senate Democrats who voted to break a filibuster gave their votes without getting anything. “What we got, at the end of the day, is avoiding the horror of a shutdown,” Schumer said.
Schumer said President Donald Trump has put the U.S. in a constitutional crisis as he escalates attacks on the judiciary and faces allegations from judges that he defied court orders.
“Look, this is an extraordinary moment. It does require extraordinary action. If he defies the Supreme Court, then we are in uncharted territory that we haven’t been in for a very long time, and our entire democracy, this whole beautiful enterprise of democracy that we’ve had for over 240 years, is at risk. And look, I believe that if Donald Trump should defy the courts, the public will rise up,” he said. “Democrats will fight it in every single way.”
Schumer also discussed his new book, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” saying he wrote it because he’s concerned that antisemitism is on the rise again.
“I aimed it at both the hard right, and we’ve seen how viciously antisemitic they could be, but also at the hard left. I felt, as a progressive, I could talk to them about how some of their anti-Israel activity — I might disagree with it, but they’re certainly entitled to do it, and it is not antisemitic — has been sliding over into direct antisemitism,” Schumer said. “I would like all of America to read this. So I hope it will be reading in colleges and in high schools to learn, teach people the history. ... I believe the best antidote to antisemitism is education.”
Schumer, who is the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, said it’s “possible” there will be a Jewish president in his lifetime, because “glass ceilings are broken every day.”
