Democrats on Capitol Hill are waging an internal war against one of their own after the GOP successfully muscled through the Senate a partisan spending bill that drew the votes of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), eight other Democrats and an independent.
The clash is pitting most of the party — including virtually every House Democrat — against Schumer, who infuriated members of his party on and off of Capitol Hill by saying Thursday night he would back the measure.
The differences over strategy badly split House and Senate Democrats.
House Democrats engaged in an active pressure campaign to convince Senate Democrats to vote against the bill, before and after Schumer’s announcement. A number of prospective Democratic presidential candidates, including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and JB Pritzker of Illinois, also urged Democrats to oppose the bill.
The fissure shattered the message of unity Democrats were hoping to convey coming out of their annual strategy retreat this week.
It also eroded confidence within the party that Schumer will hold the line to block the Republicans’ agenda in the legislative fights to come — especially after a dozen House Democrats in tough districts voted against the measure Tuesday.
“[This] is a decision about trust and cooperation, because there will be a day where the Senate will need the House to move on something. And if there is an erosion of trust, and a breach of trust, such as what is being considered right now, it will make cooperation difficult,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who some see as a future primary opponent against Schumer.
“We cannot afford to be in an every-person-for-themselves kind of moment. We need to work together and as a team in order to usher our country through this very dark time.”
Even House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D), a fellow New Yorker, declined to say he has confidence in Schumer’s ability to lead the party heading into the coming fights against the ambitious agenda of President Trump, dealing a blow to him in the process.
“Next question,” Jeffries said Friday, a couple hours before a key Senate procedural vote on the measure, when asked about his confidence in Schumer.
One Senate Democrat likened Schumer to Tom Hagen, Robert Duvall’s character in “The Godfather,” who Michael Corleone excised from his position in the family business because he was not considered “a wartime consigliere.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, added that Schumer’s surprise decision to pull punches in the spending fight will force House Democrats to recalibrate their strategy in the future.
“All of these experiences help shape our tactics, our responses. And those of us who lived through the D.C. crime bill and those efforts, it’s not lost on us,” Aguilar said. “And now the new members who came into Congress are having their own experiences working with the Senate shaped in real time.”
The dispute was not over the substance of the bill, which all Democrats opposed on its merits, but rather over how party leaders should have best played their cards in the face of a fast-approaching deadline to fund the federal government.
A failure of Congress to act would have led to large parts of the government closing their doors at the close of the day Friday.
The Democratic critics say the threat the bill poses is existential, granting Trump and Elon Musk new powers to dismantle the federal government and the services it provides. Schumer disagreed, arguing that the greater threat was a shutdown.
The move put him in the center of the storm.
The Senate Democratic leader lit a fuse Thursday evening when he announced that he would not support a filibuster — the most powerful tool at the disposal of the minority Democrats — to block the GOP bill, despite his opposition to its content.
A government shutdown, Schumer argued, would be worse than having the bill become law as it would have given Trump, Musk and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought control over which workers should be deemed essential and nonessential. There also wouldn’t be a clear idea on how the government could be reopened.
“As bad as the CR is, allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option. A shutdown would allow DOGE to shift into overdrive,” Schumer said. “It would give Donald Trump and DOGE the keys to the city, state and country.”
Schumer, who has led the conference since 2017, has rarely found himself in such a thorny situation, which was only exacerbated Friday morning by Jeffries’s lack of backup.
Others who sided against the bill, however, were more charitable of the unenviable spot Schumer found himself in.
“It’s a s‑‑‑ sandwich,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said of the CR, adding that he has confidence in Schumer moving forward as leader. “Everyone had to make hard decisions. … Really hard decisions. They’re making the best decision they can for the best of the country. I respect that.”
Fueling the Democratic criticisms, Trump had applauded Schumer Friday morning for helping to get the bill over the finish line. Anything Trump supports, the critics said, is probably a bad idea.
“When Donald Trump wakes up in the morning and says, ‘You’re doing the right things, Senate Democrats,’ we don’t feel that is the right place to be,” Aguilar said.
