Scoldy Grandpa Says He Won’t Quit His Job

Sen. Chuck Schumer said he'd remain Minority Leader because he's the best at winning Senate seats—despite his very recent history of losing seats.

By Susan Rinkunas | March 18, 2025 | 2:22pm

Politics

Scoldy Grandpa Says He Won’t Quit His Job

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that he’s not stepping down as leader amid the recent fallout over the GOP’s budget bill and that he’s a political genius, actually.

Late last week, Schumer led a group of Democrats to help Republicans overcome a Senate filibuster and pass a disastrous budget bill that gives the Trump administration unprecedented control over spending. The move—which came one day after Schumer said the GOP didn’t have the votes to pass it—angered practically his entire party.

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Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) urged Senators to vote against the bill and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) refused to defend Schumer on Friday. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called Schumer’s move “a huge slap in the face,” after house members in vulnerable seats voted against the bill. On Saturday, the progressive organizing group Indivisible, which launched during Donald Trump’s first term, called on him to step down as Senate leader. (The organization said in a statement that 82% of its leaders in New York and 91% nationwide voted to call for Schumer to step aside.) Unrelated to the budget, Schumer also hedged on the Trump administration’s arrest of Palestinian green card holder Mahmoud Khalil.

The outrage led Schumer to “postpone” stops on his book tour citing security concerns; groups had planned to protest his appearances.

Then, on Tuesday, Schumer did an interview with CBS—unclear if it was initially scheduled as part of his book tour!—and Gayle King pressed him on the calls to resign his leadership post. “People in your own party they’re saying, ‘Look, it’s time for you to go.’ They no longer trust your leadership. They want somebody else in there,” King said. “What do you say about that?”

Schumer’s response did not inspire confidence: He stumbled over his words as he defended himself and cited a statement about a “day of action” as evidence of fighting, while trying to pivot to saying the Republican party is bad. Here’s a clip:

Schumer on CBS: "I am the best leader for the Senate … I am the best at winning Senate seats."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-18T15:21:02.535Z

“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.” Let’s talk about 2020, Chuck, because that year Democrats failed to pick up seats in Maine and North Carolina and only won the tiniest majority—exactly 50 seats—that left them hostage to the whims of former Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.). Democrats were unable to end the filibuster to codify abortion rights and pass other legislation that might have changed voters’ views of President Joe Biden. That also happened under your leadership.

And he conspicuously didn’t mention 2024, when Democrats lost four Senate seats: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and, yes, West Virginia.

“We’re moving forward. Hakeem and I have a plan,” Schumer said. “There’s a real contrast between the parties, the Republican Party now, particularly in office, is the party of rich oligarchs who want to really screw every average American so they can get tax cuts for the rich. And we are fighting that every day. So today, we just issued a statement at eight o’clock that describes it. Hakeem and I, we have a day of action on Medicaid in every state, in every corner of the country. Democrats are talking about, they’re going to Medicaid centers.” OK!

Then he said his “strategy” needs more time before people can really judge it. “It’s beginning to work. [Trump’s] numbers have come down. If we keep at it every day, relentless fighting and showing how they’re hurting people so badly, Trump’s numbers will get much lower, and his both popularity but also his effectiveness will decline,” he said. “I believe that strategy will work.” Buddy, you just proved you’re not a relentless fighter.

Will a septuagenarian digging in his heels amid a clear leadership crisis screw over people in the U.S.? Hard to say, really, it’s not like we have any recent evidence of that!

Voters don’t seem to be buying this form of leadership. A CNN poll released Sunday found that voters said the politician who “best reflects the core values” of the party is…Ocasio-Cortez. Still, it was a narrow lead: 10% of voters named her, while 9% said former vice president Kamala Harris, 8% wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and 6% said Jeffries. (More than 30% of respondents didn’t offer a name, which is alarming.)

Meanwhile, Jeffries said Tuesday that he does support Schumer’s leadership. We can hope that he’s secretly assisting a Pelosi-like campaign to oust Schumer like Biden before him, but I won’t hold my breath.