House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joined congressional Democrats in criticizing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for how he handled last week’s government shutdown vote.
“I don’t give anything away for free,” Pelosi stated during a news conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. “And I think that’s what happened the other day.”
Rather than shutting down the government or agreeing to the GOP financing proposal, which Schumer had previously condemned, Pelosi believes Democrats might have persuaded Republicans to take “a third way” with a shorter-term funding package.
“They may not have agreed to it, but at least the public would have seen they’re not agreeing to it,” she told me.
Pelosi said that she is “concerned about the next time” there is a shutdown vote later this year, but added, “What happened last week was last week.” We’re heading into the future. She also said that she still supports Schumer.
Schumer opted last week to accept a GOP continuing resolution that would keep the government funded until September 30, avoiding a shutdown just hours before the deadline.
After the legislation cleared the House with just one Democratic vote, Schumer said that he would reject it and blamed President Trump for failing to negotiate with Democrats. But he altered his mind after admitting that he believed a shutdown would be a more serious danger.
Ten Senate Democrats, including Schumer, eventually voted to get the bill over a procedural obstacle. The final Senate vote was 54-46, with two Democrats backing it. Schumer wasn’t one of them.
Schumer defended himself Tuesday in an appearance with “CBS Mornings,” claiming that a shutdown would be “ten times worse” than agreeing to the Republican proposal.
“I knew when I took this vote there’d be a lot of protests, but I felt I had to do it for the future, not only of the Democratic Party, but the country,” stated the former senator.
Schumer said that he feels a shutdown would have given Mr. Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency too much leeway in determining which services to turn off. He labeled Trump, Musk, and OMB Director Russ Vought as “evil, nasty, nihilistic people.”
Schumer’s new book tour, “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” was postponed due to “security concerns.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said earlier Tuesday that he supported Schumer retaining as leader, despite declining to say last week if the party needed “new leadership.”
“Do you support his leadership of the Senate?” a reporter questioned Jeffries at a New York event on Tuesday.
“Yes,” Jeffries said.
“Yes, what?” the reporter inquired.
Jeffries said, “Yes, I do,” before going on to another inquiry.