‘Terrible for Their Relationship’: The Schumer-Jeffries Split Explodes in Public
Year after year, in shutdown fight after shutdown fight, in debt-limit standoff after debt-limit standoff, you could count on this: While Republicans would be bickering and taking potshots at each other, Democratic leaders would stay in lockstep — giving their members a united front to rally behind.
That all exploded in dramatic fashion this week, culminating Friday at a news conference unlike any I have seen in my career covering Congress, where the No. 1 House Democrat repeatedly dodged questions about whether the No. 1 Senate Democrat was fit to lead.
Should Senate Democrats ditch Chuck Schumer? House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as the kids say, chose violence: “Next question.”
It was the diss heard around the Capitol and in Democratic circles around the country. It marked the end of decades of relative peace atop the Democratic ranks and exposed the friction between two Brooklyn natives who had worked closely together last year to engineer a new presidential ticket. And it sent a worrying signal to their party: In the future, these two leaders won’t necessarily be singing from the same political hymnal.
The stunning breach comes just as President Donald Trump takes a wrecking ball to the federal bureaucracy and pushes the limits of his constitutional powers. And yet the Jeffries-vs-Schumer drama has emerged as the biggest show on Capitol Hill this week — a distraction for Democrats that is yanking the headlines away from Trump’s tough polling and a spiraling stock market.
Ashley Etienne, a former top communications strategist for ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has vocally criticized Hill Democrats agitating for a shutdown, told me it amounted to a “complete meltdown” for Democrats.
“Trump had given the party a gift — the economy is tanking, his tariff wars are devastating Americans’ pocketbooks, and the courts are finally checking his authority — yet we’ve found a way to squander it,” she said, “To beat Trump, we need clarity of purpose, discipline and coordination. It’s clear none of that exists right now.”
While the Democratic base will hold Jeffries up as a hero, even some Jeffries fans are privately questioning his approach. Before the news conference, I heard from several former House Democratic leadership aides who were puzzled by Jeffries’ posture.
One, a Democratic strategist with close ties to Pelosi granted anonymity to speak frankly, texted me out of the blue to say that he’s “afraid Jeffries is letting the Caucus’ emotional response get the best of him and his relationship with his home state counterpart.”
“Sure we’ve had disagreements in the past … but I cannot recall a moment when our bicameral leadership went this hard against each other,” the person added.
So how did two Democrats of different generations but similar politics and a shared Brooklyn upbringing end up so dramatically at odds?
Many of the Democrats I heard from said it was a long time coming and represented a deeper divide between the two leaders that had been obscured during the hothouse of the 2024 campaign.
“Leader Schumer sees Leader Jeffries as a new leader who needs to learn a lot about the nuances of governing and negotiating,” said the Pelosi-linked strategist. “Jeffries sees Schumer as someone who has lost touch with the sentiment of the base and whose tactics and style are a relic of the past.”
Yes, the clash was exacerbated by the different political realities that the two men were inhabiting. With House Republicans able to put up the votes to fund the government, Jeffries didn’t have to make the hard choice about whether he was leading his members into a shutdown. He could instead use the moment to ingratiate himself with the base, and he did.
Schumer, on the other hand, was the last man standing between the lights being shut off and 2 million federal workers being furloughed without pay. Further compounding the dilemma: real fears that Trump and Elon Musk would have even more power in a shutdown than they would otherwise.
Typically in situations like this, leaders graciously give each other space to do what they need to do — even if they privately disagree. Case in point: Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have vastly different ideas about the size and scope and strategy for Trump’s agenda — and yet we have not seen them spar publicly.
It’s not a difficult line to walk. Here’s Sen. Mark Warner managing to do it just fine: “I'm a ‘no’ on this — but I have total respect for members who are voting yes, because these were both crappy choices,” the Virginia Democrat said after announcing his opposition to the House GOP bill.
That’s not what happened here, however.
Jeffries and his leadership team worked over the course of days to stir up opposition to the House bill even after it passed, loading pressure on Senate Democrats even as many in the party knew they would eventually have to swallow it.
And all came to a head with Jeffries’ curious choice to return to the Capitol for a news conference Friday, after two days holed up with his caucus at a suburban Virginia resort, knowing full well he would be inundated with questions about Schumer — with pat answers at the ready except to indirectly accuse his Senate counterpart of posing a “false choice” between shutdown and surrender.
Jeffries’ comments at the presser, some House Democrats speculate, were the results of a pressure campaign that had been building at the Democratic retreat. As they huddled in Leesburg, members complained to Jeffries about Schumer throwing in the towel. They felt like they had gone out on a limb to vote against government funding, and they felt Schumer was being weak in refusing to follow suit.
Jeffries also felt blindsided by Schumer’s decision, according to someone close to him. While Schumer gave Jeffries a heads up that he would back the GOP’s funding bill just before announcing his intentions publicly, Jeffries had believed for days that Schumer would likely come down on his side on the vote.
Jeffries’ leadership team first put out a joint statement Thursday hours after Schumer announced his decision, in which they said they would “not be complicit” in advancing the funding bill.
Meanwhile, Jeffries privately argued to his members that they were in the right, invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr., no less: “The time is always right to do what's right. This week, House Democrats did what was right. We stood up against Donald Trump,” he said at the retreat, according to my colleague Nicholas Wu.
A person close with Jeffries told me he did not mean to cast aspersions on Schumer’s leadership during the news conference by dodging the questions and meant instead to keep the focus on Republicans.
Tell that to Schumer. Now with Jeffries keeping mum on Schumer’s future as Senate Democratic leader, he has essentially given Democrats a green light to question whether he should stay at all.
The dynamic is a major break from the relationship Pelosi and Schumer had back in the day. One of the former leadership aides said those two would have been bending each other’s ears daily to strategize — and certainly never would have let their disagreement spill out into the open.
“I don’t know that Pelosi would have ever gotten into an open confrontation with the Senate like this,” said a senior House aide. (Notably, Pelosi herself released a statement Thursday that was quite similar to what Jeffries was saying, lamenting the "false choice" presented by Schumer.)
The most surprising part of it, these people told me, is that Jeffries pounced even after Schumer explained that he was trying to do what he believed was right — taking the hard position on behalf of what’s best for the party despite knowing he’d take heat from the base.
“This is the [Mitch] McConnell thing, right?” the former House leadership aide said. “He would take the shit and eat the sandwich — and that’s what you do when you are leader. Pelosi did it, too. These guys [in the House], they don’t have the same experience.”
So why create all this chaos for his counterpart across the Rotunda? The immediate political incentives for Jeffries were clear: He was already getting pummeled by the base for the tepid response from Washington Democrats to Trump and Musk’s slash-and-burn campaign. Given the opportunity to reverse that narrative, he took it.
“Look, it takes a lot of heat off our leadership,” said one senior House Democratic aide when asked about why Jeffries was doing this.
Another senior House Democratic aide told my colleague Nick that the situation allowed front-line Democrats to keep the base happy while someone else took out the trash.
But it may have come at the cost of upending the lockstep relationship between leaders that has historically been essential to parties out of power. The usual pattern in Washington is that nothing unites a party quite like being in the minority — witness Kevin McCarthy’s marriage of convenience to the hard-liner Jim Jordan, who once blocked him from the gavel.
The breakup also underscores the continuing divide in the Democratic Party over how to oppose Trump.
A longtime former House Democratic leadership aide, who was also granted anonymity to speak frankly, called it evidence of “the lack of experience by House leaders.” The aide warned that this could have long-term repercussions.
“The cool sexy thing is, ‘fight, fight, fight.’ … But it’s one thing to gin up pressure on [Sens. Kyrsten] Sinema and [Joe] Manchin,” the person said, referring to the retired Senate moderates. “This is different. …This is gonna be terrible for their relationship.”
Topics
-
‘Terrible for Their Relationship’: The Schumer-Jeffries Split Explodes in Public
“To beat Trump, we need clarity of purpose, discipline and coordination," one top Democratic strategist said. "It’s clear none of that exists right now.”Politico - 1d -
Rams bring back defensive lineman who missed 2024 season with terrible injury luck
Larrell Murchison missed the entire 2024 season with some terrible injury luck, but he's back with the Rams for another yearYahoo Sports - 9h -
This Split Mattress Topper Made for Partners Who Can’t Agree
If you and your partner have different sleeping styles and debate over how soft or firm a mattress should be, the answer is this split topper.Wired - Mar. 8 -
Trump insists Musk, Rubio have 'great relationship'
President Trump insisted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and close Trump adviser Elon Musk have a "great relationship" following an explosive report that the two clashed during a contentious ...The Hill - 6d -
Inside the Trump-Massie love-hate relationship
President Trump’s threat to back a primary challenger against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is just the latest boiling point in their hot-and-cold relationship — and the Kentuckian is brushing off the ...The Hill - 2d -
Trump's fraught relationship with NATO
President Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte Thursday in the Oval Office. The meeting comes as the president has repeatedly scolded NATO allies for what he sees as inadequate defense ...CBS News - 1d -
Trump's fraught relationship with NATO
President Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte Thursday in the Oval Office. The meeting comes as the president has repeatedly scolded NATO allies for what he sees as inadequate defense ...CBS News - 1d -
What is micro-cheating? Relationship experts share what to know.
Micro-cheating, whether intentional or not, can negatively impact a couple in a number of ways. Here's what to know, according to relationship experts.CBS News - 3d -
Steelers are changing, dramatically
The Steelers seem to be throwing in the Terrible Towel.Yahoo Sports - 5d -
Some Senate Democrats split over spending bill to avert government shutdown
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans don't currently have the votes to pass the short-term spending bill. Some Democrats say they are split over whether to support the stopgap ...CBS News - 2d -
Digging into Elon Musk's relationship with California
Before becoming President Trump's right-hand man in Washington, D.C., Elon Musk built his career on the West Coast. Emma Anderson, California tech editor for Politico, joins "America Decides" to ...CBS News - 1d -
DOJ weighs plan to slash public corruption unit
The Justice Department (DOJ) is weighing a sizable reduction in a division designed to handle public corruption cases, a move that comes after the department dropped charges against New York City ...The Hill - 3d -
The Science-Backed Way to Save Your Relationship When Work Is Super Stressful: Connection Rituals
Entrepreneurship can be rough on relationships. Science suggests a simple way to keep your partnership strong anyway: connection rituals.Inc. - Mar. 7 -
Split Fiction Is Now EA's No. 2 Game All Time On Steam, Ahead Of Battlefield And FIFA
Split Fiction, the newest co-op game from writer-director Josef Fares and his Hazelight Studios, released on March 6 and had a gigantic opening weekend. The game reached a peak of 259,003 ...GameSpot - 5d -
I’m a psychologist who studies couples—if you say 'yes' to these 4 questions, your relationship is stronger than most
Psychologist Mark Travers has spent most of his career studying what makes marriages successful. If you answer “yes” to each of these questions, he says, there’s no doubt that your relationship ...CNBC - 6d -
Hinge Health to go public as soon as April, source says
Hinge Health could file for an initial public offering as soon as next week, CNBC has learned.CNBC - 5d -
Harvard researchers sue the Trump administration for removing their work from public website
Two Harvard researchers said in a lawsuit that the Trump administration removed their work from a public website because it referenced the LGBTQ community.NBC News - 1d -
WATCH: SpaceX starship rocket explodes during test flight
Just minutes after a seemingly successful launch from Texas on Thursday night, Starship Flight Test 8 began to spin out of control when mission control lost contact with the unmanned rocket ship.ABC News - Mar. 7 -
Softball: Sooners explode late to beat Arkansas in series opener
The first game of Saturday's doubleheader turned into an elite pitching battle between Sam Landry and Robyn Herron.Yahoo Sports - 2h -
Trump to sign executive order limiting Public Service Loan Forgiveness program
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order excluding certain student loan borrowers from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.CNBC - Mar. 7 -
A perfect measles’ storm: Vaccine skepticism and failed leadership broke public trust
The U.S. can restore confidence in its public health institutions and those who represent them if it responds decisively in situations like the Texas measles outbreak.The Hill - Mar. 8 -
Justice Department office that prosecutes public corruption slashed in size, sources say
The Trump administration is slashing the size of the Justice Department's unit that oversees prosecutions of public officials accused of corruption, three sources told NBC News.NBC News - 4d -
‘A cascade of terrible things’: documentary pieces together Rust shooting tragedy
Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna pays tribute to the cinematographer killed in a freak on-set accident. Anyone who loved Halyna Hutchins expected her to become a name. At 42, Hutchins had ...The Guardian - 4d -
After 'terrible' season, Mike Williams eager to win with Jim Harbaugh and Chargers
A year after leaving the Chargers as a salary-cap casualty, Mike Williams is eager to work alongside Justin Herbert and be a deep-ball threat for the team.Yahoo Sports - 1d -
Gavin Newsom splits with Democrats on transgender athletes
California's Democratic governor is already facing blowback from his own party after comments he made in the debut episode of his podcast "This is Gavin Newsom."CBS News - Mar. 7 -
The red counties that want to split from blue Illinois
Almost a third of the state’s counties have voted to investigate leavingFinancial Times - 5d -
Source: 49ers, Juszczyk reunite after brief split
After a brief parting, fullback Kyle Juszczyk is returning to the 49ers on a two-year, $8 million deal, a source told ESPN.ESPN - 57m -
Make public service work again
Too many of this government’s proposals introduce the kind of regulation the PM professes to hateFinancial Times - 1d -
Crypto Exchanges Kraken and Gemini Plan to Go Public Under Trump’s Deregulatory Agenda
With lawsuits dropped, the lanes are opening up for crypto companies to become part of the public markets.Inc. - 2d -
Luka Doncic on whether he will play on Friday versus the Nuggets
Will Luka Doncic, who exploded for 45 points on Thursday versus the Bucks, play on Friday against the Nuggets?Yahoo Sports - 1d -
Public, private, and political: Valentino turns a staged restroom into high fashion’s boldest stage
Valentino paraded high fashion inside a public toilets setting in one of the most unexpected backdrops of the season, especially for a house as classical as ValentinoABC News - 6d -
Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Handheld Controller Is Only $42 At Amazon
Hori Split Pad Pro - Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Edition $42 (was ...GameSpot - 4d -
New technique helps LLMs rein in CoT lengths, optimizing reasoning without exploding compute costs
Carnegie Mellon University researchers propose a new LLM training technique that gives developers more control over chain-of-thought length.VentureBeat - 2d -
NOAA cuts raising concerns over public safety
Another wave of mass firings could be hitting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency, which includes the National Weather Service, could ultimately lose about 20% of its ...CBS News - 4d -
The public is losing patience with Trump — it's time for Democrats to pounce
It isn’t enough for Trump and his Republican goons to stumble into major policy failures — Democrats must also find effective messaging that shows voters that their so-called populist heroes are ...The Hill - 3d -
Public Health Survived the Pandemic. Now It Fights Politics.
Five years after the pandemic began, many local health officials say that the politicization of Covid has left them with fewer tools and fresh challenges.The New York Times - 2d -
No one’s buying Hunter Biden’s terrible paintings any more? I wonder why | Arwa Mahdawi
It’s tough being a nepo baby – especially when your daddy suddenly loses his influence. Poor Hunter Biden. His dad, who issued him an unconditional pardon as one of his last acts as US president, ...The Guardian - 4d -
At least 6 killed in a militant attack on a hotel in Somalia
A car bomb has exploded at a hotel in the central Somali city of Beledweyne in a militant attack that killed at least six people, including two prominent traditional eldersABC News - 4d -
Kings' DeMar DeRozan fined $25K by NBA for criticizing officials after loss to Nuggets
DeRozan said the refs were 'terrible' and did not like the discrepancy in calls against both teams.Yahoo Sports - Mar. 7
More from Politico
-
The Congress Issue
Senate Majority Leader John Thune arrived at the apex of power just as President Donald Trump is exerting his own executive authority. Will Thune draw a line?Politico - 9h -
‘Terrible for Their Relationship’: The Schumer-Jeffries Split Explodes in Public
“To beat Trump, we need clarity of purpose, discipline and coordination," one top Democratic strategist said. "It’s clear none of that exists right now.”Politico - 1d -
Mace sued for defamation by man she accused of abuse in floor speech
The legal action seeks to carve out an exception from the speech or debate clause of the Constitution.Politico - 1d -
Dems ask Trump admin to explain Khalil’s arrest, calling it ‘playbook of authoritarians’
More than 100 House Democrats sent the letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.Politico - 1d -
Capitol agenda: Schumer stops a shutdown
Politico - 1d
More in Politics
-
Sunday shows preview: Congress avoids government shutdown; Trump tariffs rattle economy
Republicans scored a major win on Friday as the Senate approved the House-GOP crafted spending bill, largely authored without input from Democrats. The new piece of legislation boosts defense ...The Hill - 57m -
Here's where Trump's approval rating stands on key issues
President Trump's approval ratings are showing signs of weakening nearly two months into his second term. While his efforts to crack down on immigration seem largely well-received, Trump’s ...The Hill - 2h -
US launches ‘decisive and powerful’ strikes against Houthis in Yemen
President Trump said the United States has launched “decisive and powerful” strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, warning that the military “will use overwhelming lethal force” until the ...The Hill - 2h -
DOGE representatives visit US Institute of Peace, are turned away
U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the ...The Hill - 2h -
Extreme weather sweeps through the US after storms kill at least 17
Large scale wildfires and straight-line-winds ravaged Oklahoma on Friday, one day before violent tornadoes hit the Mississippi Valley on Saturday, resulting in at least 17 deaths. The state of ...The Hill - 3h