Chuck Schumer

The end of the Democrats’ government shutdown is at last in sight, and so too is the final act of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. On Sunday night, eight Senate Democrats finally broke with Schumer and voted in favor of a procedural step necessary to eventually pass a continuing resolution to end the more than monthlong standoff. “Democrats have been fighting for months to address America's healthcare crisis,” tweeted Schumer, who vowed that they would “keep fighting.” It was the kind of weak, empty gesture that has come to define Schumer’s tenure at the helm of his conference. Because regardless of what spin Schumer might like to put on this turn of events, the truth is that it represents yet another unambiguous failure on his part.

Donald Trump keeps going nuclear. First it was his demand on Thursday that the Pentagon resume nuclear testing. Now he’s declaring that the Senate must abolish the filibuster in toto. In a post on his social media site, Trump announced: “THE CHOICE IS CLEAR – INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER.” Are Republican senators seeking to duck and cover in the face of Trump’s exhortations? Not a chance. Rather, in an unusual turn of events, they are defying him. Senate majority leader John Thune issued a statement on Friday morning indicating that he has not altered his views about amending the filibuster. Meanwhile, Senator John Curtis of Utah posted on X Friday morning that the filibuster “forces us to find common ground.

There are serious, unanswered questions about the impact of America’s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites. Three stand out. How much was actually destroyed? Where is the highly-enriched uranium that Iran apparently removed from the Fordow site before the bombs fell? And is America threatened by Iranian sleeper cells, perhaps hidden among the more than 700 Iranians whom the Biden administration released into the American interior after they crossed the border illegally? Nor are they the only threat. We have no idea how many terrorists are among the 2 million “got aways” who were seen on surveillance cameras crossing the border but never apprehended.  Those are serious questions about serious threats, and they deserve thoughtful, bipartisan inquiry. They won’t receive it.

The reaction to President Trump’s meeting with GOP members on Capitol Hill today was decidedly mixed, especially for the so-called SALT Republicans, with leading voices like Representative Mike Lawler of New York saying, “I’m not going to budge” on the issue despite Trump’s demands. Used to the opposition from the chamber’s last remaining fiscal hawks, much of the focus to this point has been on the typical intransigent wing of the House Freedom Caucus, which still doesn’t like the overall fiscal impact and wanted more significant Medicaid reforms. For them, Trump’s message in the meeting was clear: “Don’t fuck around with Medicaid.

A lonely caravan, ambushed on the open frontier, circles the wagons. The settlers bring out their long rifles to fight for survival. They endure the first onslaught, but dusk is falling – and the battle has only begun.It’s a familiar scene in Hollywood westerns. In recent weeks, on Washington’s political prairies, the mainstream Democratic establishment has been living it, too.The Democrats of the old established order are hunkered down behind whatever cover they can find, defending themselves against a rising, radical flank of their own party. The insurgents call themselves "the Resistance" – but they’re not just resisting Republicans. They are contesting normalcy within their own party.

Even on the placid streets of London’s Mayfair, James Carville cannot find peace. “Every five minutes I get stopped and asked about Chuck Schumer,” says the Democratic strategist when I speak to him. “I can’t even enjoy a $30 martini by myself.” Carville’s party is in dire straits. The humiliation of losing to Donald Trump had not yet worn off when the Donald stormed back to the White House with a vengeance, unleashing the chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk on the federal government, assembling a cabinet intent on carrying out even his most radical policies – and scaring the few Republican would-be dissenters in Congress into submission.

If you have ever been desperate and adrift, you understand the Democratic Party’s frustration. One day, James Carville tells his party to do nothing and let President Trump destroy himself. Another, the Montgomery Burns of American politics, Senator Chuck Schumer, advises a strategy of sustained resistance, rallying his troops to “make Donald Trump the quickest lame duck in history.” The old Senate Minority Leader feeds his angry, cannibalistic followers in hope they won’t eat him. Some Democrats protest their party has been too woke. Others, not woke enough. Pete Buttigieg, a man not often confused with a lumberjack, swaps “darn” and “shucks” for saltier words to demonstrate his party’s determination.

The leadership of the Democratic Party is as open as it has been in generations, with Nancy Pelosi occupying emerita status, Chuck Schumer under fire from half his party – and their most prominent governors hamstrung by problems at home or the fact they’d much rather be podcasting. The field is effectively cleared for an upstart to emerge based on sheer communications talent and the ability to take advantage of a power vacuum as an avatar of leftward frustration. And if that’s the direction Democrats decide to go in 2028, there’s no one who occupies that role right now more impressively than the constantly viral phenomenon that is the congresswoman from Dallas, Texas – Jasmine Crockett.

The rapid nature of the turn against Chuck Schumer, ostensibly the most powerful Democrat in Washington as Senate Minority Leader, is a sign of a Democratic Party in utter chaos. Axios reports today that the calls from House Democrats for Schumer to step down from his post have already begun, following on outside progressive groups who deemed him unworthy as a wartime consigliere. The colossal miscalculation of standing up the possibility of fighting only to cave immediately to keep the government from shutting down has consequences. For the aging Senator who has held on so long, his spectacles perched at the edge of his nose, it seems like he is living on borrowed time.  Progressives may have a rehab program in mind, but how long can that last?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s failed fiscal gambit last week proved as obvious as it was predictable. Yet Schumer's flub has had an outsized impact in prompting open conversation among Democrats about whether they need to move on from the New York Senator. The leftist activist group Indivisible called for Schumer to step down, saying he needs to be replaced with “a Minority Leader who’s up for the fight this moment demands.” Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania went on Bill Maher Friday to criticize Schumer’s misuse of legislative leverage. And prominent party voice MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend announced she was quitting the Democratic Party live on air.

It isn’t just a weekend of warmer weather for the President, who took off for Mar-a-Lago yesterday evening. It is possibly a weekend full of calmer news. The decision from Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer to let the spending bill advance in the Senate allowed the six-month extension to get over the line last night, as the Senate voted 54-46 to see it through. This seemed to give markets a temporary sense of relief as well, as growing expectation that the bill would pass saw stocks rally. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had their best day gains since Donald Trump took office again, while technology stocks also appeared to make a major comeback by the time markets closed yesterday.

Call it the ultimate example of budgetary FAFO — or "F- around and find out": Republicans are practically daring Democrats in the Senate to follow through on Chuck Schumer’s threat to vote against the six-month continuing resolution passed by the House Tuesday night on a near-party-line vote. With Senator Rand Paul joining his fellow libertarian-minded Kentuckyian Representative Thomas Massie in opposing the measure, Republicans likely need eight Democrats to cross over. And despite Schumer’s claim yesterday that Republicans won’t get those votes, everyone in the know in Washington believes the old man’s threat is fist-shaking at clouds.

Losing elections is a bit like getting dumped. Often times the dumped party’s desire to overcome the heartbreak or to bounce back from the blow can result in an even messier downfall. You need a minute to get your act together, lest you make an ass of yourself in public while trying to demonstrate how well you’re doing. The Democrats are in that break-up spiral, with their latest antics exposing a lack of both direction and discretion.  Earlier this month, Representative Maxine Waters, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Al Green (combined age: 237) gathered outside the Treasury Department and bemoaned the Department of Government Efficiency and its leader Elon Musk.