Embattled Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) faced calls again last week for him to step aside and allow younger, more left-wing leadership to take over the party, but it doesn’t sound like he’s ready to do that.
“I am staying put, and I’m fighting the fight every day, as is our caucus, in a united and successful way,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday. “We’re showing America how bad Trump is, and showing that Republicans who embrace Trump do so at their peril.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate minority whip with 44 years of service, said in last week’s retirement announcement that it was time to “pass the torch.” Outgoing Sen. Gary Peters used the same phrase in his February retirement post, the Daily Beast reported.
“I always knew there would come a time to pass the torch to the next generation of public servants and allow them the opportunity to bring fresh energy and ideas to our nation’s capital,” Peters said.
Schumer last faced calls to step aside in March after he chose not to shut down the government over a Trump-backed funding bill. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet had urged Democrats to “have future conversations” about party leadership in response to constituent anger over Schumer’s cooperation with Republicans—a call he reiterated last week.
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“[Trump is] the first president to strip us of a fundamental civil right since Reconstruction … That begs real questions about what it is we’re presenting to the American people,” he falsely claimed in an interview with Semafor, failing to name the right that had been ‘stripped’ away and ignoring the fact that a Democratic president — Joe Biden — used his Justice Department to try to jail Trump, his political opponent.
Schumer, meanwhile, is remaining defiant.
“Sometimes when you’re a leader, you have to do things to avoid a real danger that might come down the curve,” Schumer said last month. “And I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was. People disagree.”
The New York Democrat also refused to rule out another impeachment of Trump, something that would inflame Republicans and their legions of supporters.
CNN anchor Dana Bash pressed Schumer on the question during his “State of the Union” interview, noting how far-left Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said he “strongly” agreed that Trump needs to be impeached.
“Your colleague from Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff told voters at a town hall that he ‘strongly’ agrees that President Trump should be impeached. Do you agree with him? Would that be a priority if Democrats were to take back Congress?” Bash asked.
“Well, look, right now, President Trump is violating rule of law in every way,” Schumer claimed. “We’re fighting him every single day in every way. And our goal is to show the American people over and over again, whether it’s the economy, whether it’s tariffs, whether it’s Russia and overseas, and whether it’s rule of law, how bad he is.
“And two years is too far away to predict. Our job is day to day to day to show who Trump is, what he is doing. And it’s having an effect,” he added, despite polling showing Trump’s priorities remain popular with Americans while Democrats are suffering their lowest approval ratings — in the upper 20s — in a century.
Bash then cut in as Schumer started talking about polls, “But you’re not ruling out … You’re not saying no?”
Schumer didn’t take the bait, however. “Look, it’s too far away to even judge,” he said.
Trump was nonsensically impeached twice during his first term by the Democrat-controlled House—once over Ukraine and once over January 6—yet both efforts ended in acquittal by the GOP-led Senate.