CNN
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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer says he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
“I should be the leader,” he said defiantly during a morning appearance on “The View.”
Even as the New Yorker draws the wrath of his party for clearing a path for President Donald Trump’s government funding bill last week, he’s doesn’t yet appear to face any real threat from inside his own Senate caucus.
Instead, Schumer has already moved onto his next fights with Trump. In between his various attempts at damage control on the spending fight, Schumer joined a call with Senate Judiciary Democrats on Tuesday to discuss strategy for responding to the White House’s plan to speed up deportations using the Alien Enemies Act, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
Separately, Schumer and his team coordinated a “Medicaid Day of Action” with their House Democratic colleagues to protest Trump’s agenda, which Democrats describe as the “largest Medicaid cut in American history,” as they warn of the potential for future cuts.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, his fellow New Yorker who just days earlier refused to take questions about whether he backed him as leader, appeared to close ranks, joining Schumer in a joint statement to declare “we are in this fight until we win this fight,” and affirming support for his leadership.
“Yes I do,” Jeffries said later Tuesday morning at his own press conference outside the Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, the Democratic leaders’ shared hometown. Jeffries said he had a “good conversation” with Schumer during a one-on-one in Brooklyn over the weekend to ensure Democrats “speak with one voice” to keep Medicaid intact.
Still, Schumer – who became party leader nine years ago, weeks after Trump won his first term – is still working fiercely to convince his party he did the right thing in pulling Democrats back from their first real battle of Trump’s second term. And he faces challenges ahead: He has infuriated the Democratic base in a way that operatives worry could dry up fundraising and manpower for the midterms.
Some in the party — particularly among activists — are still calling for Schumer’s resignation and seething over his decision to postpone his book tour citing “security concerns” amid the planned protests. Privately, his own senators criticized the party’s lack of clear message and urged Schumer to fix the problem before the next big fight.
But Schumer is not a leader in retreat. He is, in fact, digging in on his position with a determination to convince his party how to “fight smart” against Trump and why shutting down the government would have cost Democrats a lot more than political leverage. And in classic fashion, he is fighting and tweeting his way through much of the backlash in public, with extensive interviews from “The View” to The New York Times.
“No one wants to fight more than me and no one fights more than me. You’ve got to fight smart,” Schumer said on the ABC daytime talk show Tuesday, stressing that he felt he was forced to choose between a “bad” GOP funding bill or a “devastating” shutdown. “One chops off one of your fingers, the other chops off your arm.”
And in interview after interview, Schumer is making clear that he’s not stepping away as leader.
“I’m the best leader for the Senate,” Schumer told CBS’ “This Morning.”
For now, Schumer is dealing with only external pressure: None of his fellow senators are criticizing him publicly. The Democratic base is channeling anger through progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and their planned massive rallies across the country. One of those rallies — a Denver town hall on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour – has recorded some 17,000 RSVPs, more than the peak of Sanders’ presidential bid, according to a person with knowledge of the event.
Others are still using the phone. Many angry Democratic voters are calling up their home senators with strong messages for Schumer, according to two Democrats familiar with the outreach.
A number of his fellow Democrats in Washington, however, are pivoting to the next fight. Democrats may not have real leverage over Republicans’ plans to pass Trump’s agenda through the partisan-process known as budget reconciliation, but they can exert maximum political pressure back home. So they are gearing up for a brutal battle over extending Trump’s tax cuts, the possibility of major cuts to mandatory spending programs like Medicaid or nutritional assistance, and a debt limit hike.
Schumer’s other major fight ahead is the 2026 midterms. And as he stressed on “The View,” he sees his political acumen as perhaps his greatest asset to the party.
“One of the things I am known to be very good at is how to win seats,” Schumer said, touting his ability to recruit and promote party strategy.
At least one of those potential recruits for 2026 agrees.
Rep. Haley Stevens, who is eying a possible run for Michigan Senate, told CNN on Sunday: “I think Chuck Schumer’s a great leader.”
CNN’s Manu Raju, Morgan Rimmer and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
