Distrust dogs Democrats as they prepare for battles with Trump
The aftermath of last week’s bitter spending fight has forced Democrats to wonder whether trust levels between the two chambers can be rebuilt ahead of high-stakes battles with President Trump in the coming months.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) stirred a firestorm of intraparty fury on Friday when he helped Republicans advance a partisan spending bill that House Democrats had opposed almost to the person.
In doing so, Schumer surrendered the Democrats’ most potent leveraging tool, the filibuster, exasperating scores of Democrats already under fire from liberals who say they’re fighting too feebly against Trump’s early blitz of executive orders, federal firings and unilateral spending cuts.
Schumer has vehemently defended his decision, saying a shutdown would have been worse than adopting the continuing resolution (CR) written by the GOP to keep the government operating through September. But the debate has embittered many House Democrats, who say they’ve lost trust in Schumer to go to the mats against Trump’s agenda.
“Nobody doubts that the government shutdown Republicans were barreling towards would have been bad,” one House Democratic aide said Tuesday. “But to throw in the towel and give them votes on a partisan CR that empowers Trump only broadcast a dangerous message to the American people: Democrats won’t fight for you or hold the line for our democracy.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who had led the pressure campaign on Schumer to oppose the GOP spending bill, said Tuesday he spoke with the Senate minority leader over the weekend and he’s ready to turn to the page for the sake of party unity.
Jeffries endorsed Schumer’s position as Senate leader, emphasizing that Democrats in both chambers are in lockstep when it comes to the next major battle on Capitol Hill: the fight over Trump’s massive domestic wish list combining tax cuts with a crackdown on immigration, an expansion of domestic energy production and changes to federal health care programs such as Medicaid.
“The next few weeks in Washington, D.C., Republicans are going to try to jam this budget down the throats of the American people,” Jeffries said during a press event in Brooklyn. “Every single House Democrat, and every single Senate Democrat, voted against the initial budget resolution at the end of February, and we remain united in stopping these Medicaid cuts.”
Yet Schumer’s Democratic critics say it’s not the fight over the Republicans’ big domestic package that they’re worried about. While Democrats will have the chance to weigh in to some degree in a potential vote-a-rama, that legislation is moving under special budget rules, known as reconciliation, that make it immune to the filibuster.
Rather, their anxiety comes from looking ahead to the next government funding deadline on Sept. 30, when the filibuster is back in play and Schumer will again be the last line of Democratic defense — if Trump and other GOP leaders are able to rally House Republicans behind another partisan bill, as was the case this month.
Many expect Republicans to return to that same playbook.
“When the next funding deadline comes up in September, Schumer has already shown Trump and Republicans exactly how to roll right over him, which is why he cannot effectively lead going forward,” the House aide said.
Fueling those frustrations, more than two dozen vulnerable “front-line” Democrats had stuck with their leadership team to oppose the GOP bill in the lower chamber — a potentially tough vote for some moderates that was aimed, at least in part, to embolden Senate Democrats to take the same position. Many House lawmakers said they were stunned when Schumer backed the bill instead.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a former member of the House Democratic leadership team, hailed Jeffries for holding the line in the House and said he “thought the Senate was on board.”
Rep. Debbie Dingell (Mich.), who heads the House Democrats’ messaging arm, said “Sen. Schumer sent out mixed signals.”
And Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said House Democrats will have to adjust their own strategies to accommodate the possibility that Senate Democrats will join Republicans on big-ticket legislation in the future.
“All of these experiences help shape our tactics, our responses,” Aguilar said shortly before Friday’s Senate vote.
Schumer on Tuesday fired back at the intense criticism, telling “CBS Mornings” that he stands by his decision to keep the government open and argued that there would have been no end in sight to a shutdown.
“We would have had half the federal government we have right now,” said Schumer, who maintained that much of the government would have been hollowed out during a shutdown. “I thought I did the thing a leader should do. Even when people don’t see the danger around the curve, my job was to alert people to it, and I knew I’d get some bullets.”
He also indicated that he has no plans of going anywhere in the face of criticism and calls for him to exit the Democratic leadership team. That criticism and anger led him to nix his book tour this week over security concerns.
“I’m the best leader for the Senate,” Schumer continued. “I am the best at winning Senate seats. I’ve done it in 2005. Just in 2020, no one thought we’d take back the Senate. Under my leadership, we took it.”
“We’re moving forward. [Jeffries] and I have a plan,” he added.
Part of that plan is seemingly to go on offense as Democrats, especially in support of key issues such as Medicaid. Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday held a “Medicaid Day of Action,” with members trying to highlight what could be substantial cuts as part of the GOP’s looming reconciliation plan.
Looking ahead to future fights, members say they are expecting a more proactive leadership team, even if Democrats generally have little leverage.
“I think we're all starting to really internalize the existential threat Trump is, and that we've got to be less risk-averse,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) in a phone interview. “This was a bump in relation, but totally reparable because I think we're largely on the same page of what our objective is.”
“I think we're starting to much more energetically internalize how big an existential threat Trump and his illegal rampage is to our country, and I think you're gonna see a less risk-averse leadership and membership going forward,” he said.
But for now, Democrats are caught between a rock and a hard place.
At a Monday town hall dedicated to Medicaid, Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) heard from angry attendees wanting to replace Schumer. Neither senator responded, with Gallego instead steering the conversation back to the insurance program.
But members and constituents agree that they want a more forceful response to Trump in the coming weeks and months.
“The Senate continues to have considerable respect for Schumer’s leadership, but I also see the Senate moving towards a much fiercer appetite of confrontation to Trump,” Welch said.
“And Schumer — he’s sensitive [to that]. He'll listen,” he added.
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