Democrats found themselves in the middle of an all-out civil war on Friday as the Senate prepared to advance a six-month government funding bill to avert a shutdown set for midnight.
The Republican-crafted legislation dramatically split Democrats, revealing deep divisions within the party that left many questioning Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) ability to continue at the helm of his caucus after folding in a showdown with Republicans.
Schumer, along with several other Senate Democrats, planned to help Republicans break a 60-vote filibuster to advance the stopgap measure that will ultimately allow Congress to avoid a shutdown. The Democratic leader feared a shutdown would be made evermore painful by the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal government, while progressive critics demanded a four-week version they insisted would have generated time for a full-year budget with spending guardrails for the Trump administration.
House Democratic leaders, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), repeatedly declined to answer whether they maintained confidence in Schumer as Senate Democratic leader.
“You keep engaging in these parlor games because you want to take the focus off the American people,” Jeffries told reporters. “What we’re saying is we look forward to continuing to work with our Senate colleagues, all of them, in opposition to the extremism that’s being unleashed on the American people.”
Some Democratic senators, including Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), refused to answer similar questions. Others came to Schumer’s defense, even as they disagreed with his position to stave off a shutdown. Defenders said Schumer faced no good options with an impending shutdown.
“It’s a s*** sandwich,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), who was set to vote against advancing the funding bill. “Both [options] are shoving power across the table to a White House that’s already got it.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the former speaker of the House in President Donald Trump’s first term, openly called for Democratic senators to reject the House-passed funding bill in defiance of Schumer’s position that would all but certainly lead to a shutdown.
“Neither is a good option for the American people,” Pelosi said in a statement. “But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable.”
The GOP-crafted spending bill, known in Washington as a continuing resolution because it largely keeps spending at continuous levels, cleared the House earlier this week and will only need a simple majority on final passage in the Senate that was set to occur later Friday.
“Every Senate Dem. should vote NO on cloture and NO on the CR,” Susan Rice, domestic policy adviser for former President Joe Biden, wrote on social media. “No self-respecting Democratic lawmaker who takes his or her responsibility to their constituents and the constitution seriously can vote for this despicable Trump/Musk power grab CR. Why should Dems roll over and play dead when they were completely cut out and presented with a s*** sandwich? Why give Trump a bipartisan imprimatur to gut the government? WTF?”
Rice added, “[Schumer] please grow a spine. And quickly.”
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: WHAT HAPPENS IF CONGRESS DOESN’T PASS A STOPGAP SPENDING BILL
Schumer defended his decision as the least bad option, fearing a shutdown would further enable federal workforce firings and agency budget cuts at the hands of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“If we go into a shutdown, as I told my caucus this, there’s no off-ramp. … How you stop a shutdown is totally determined by the Republican House and Senate,” Schumer told reporters. “They could keep us in a shutdown for months and months.”