Democratic lawmakers, candidates and left-wing activist groups are taking aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over eight Democrats supporting a bipartisan deal to end the 41-day shutdown.
Two House Democrats — Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts — in addition to Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner have called for Schumer’s ouster following a handful of Democrats advancing a stopgap bill to reopen the government. Though Schumer publicly opposed the shutdown deal, his progressive critics have lambasted his role in failing to secure a win on Democrats’ chief shutdown demand: an extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies that will expire at the end of December.
Eight Democrats advanced the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) during a vote Sunday night, providing the minimum number of votes necessary to cross the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. Schumer voted “no” on the procedural motion, but is catching most of the heat from congressional Democrats and the party’s base.
“I’m not going to run on a new generation of leadership platform here in Massachusetts and then go down to Washington and vote for the status quo,” Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton told left-wing YouTuber Jack Cocchiarella on Monday. “Again [I] respect his service, but [it’s] time to move on.”
Moulton, 47, is mounting an insurgent primary challenge against Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey. Though Markey, 79, opposed the bipartisan deal to end the shutdown, he has not called on Schumer to step aside.
“Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced,” California Rep. Ro Khanna, 49, wrote on X on Sunday night. “If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”
Progressive candidates running to join Schumer in the Senate and Democratic Party-aligned organizations working to mobilize voters have also ripped the shutdown deal. Maine Democrat Graham Platner, who is vying to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins, called on Schumer to resign as Democratic Leader on Monday.
“Last night, some Senate Democrats caved,” Platner, 41, said in a video posted to social media. “This happened because Chuck Schumer failed in his job yet again.”
The Bernie Sanders-backed candidate then urged his listeners to call their senators and tell them that Schumer should step down from his leadership post.
Our Revolution, a Sanders-aligned activist group, also called on Schumer to quit his leadership role.
“If he secretly backed this surrender and voted ‘no’ to save face, he’s a liar,” Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, said in a statement obtained by USA Today. “If he couldn’t keep his caucus in line, he’s inept.”
Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the left-wing group known as “the Squad,” also called for Schumer’s resignation on Monday.
“Sen. Schumer has failed to meet this moment and is out of touch with the American people,” Tlaib wrote on X.
Democratic Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, a member of Democratic leadership, defended Schumer’s leadership over the record-breaking shutdown on Monday.
“I’ve been in many of those rooms, and he fought like hell against that,” Schatz, who voted against the CR Sunday, told reporters the following day, referring to Schumer.
The eight dissenting Democrats disputed the prevailing narrative on Monday that the cohort caved by joining Republicans to bring an end to the shutdown.
“The government shutting down seemed to be an opportunity to lead us to better policy, but it didn’t work,” retiring Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat, who voted for the CR after having opposed it 14 times, told reporters. “It worked to this extent: health insurance became a big issue, and we get our day in court in December, but this government shutdown itself did not achieve that.”
The promised vote on a Democrat-authored ACA subsidy extension bill is likely to fail given widespread GOP opposition. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also not committed to holding a vote on the measure in his chamber.
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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