Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune weak, said Republicans will own any government shutdown and insisted that Democrats shouldn’t agree to fund federal agencies unless Congress clamps down on the administration’s ability to unilaterally cut spending.
This is a very different Schumer than the one who helped Thune keep the government open in March. During an interview on Fly Out Day, Schumer didn’t sound like a man who is going to fold.
“It’s different in many different ways,” Schumer said, comparing this funding fight to the one in March. “First, the Republicans have shown who they are. They’ve decimated people’s health care between March and now. They’ve done so much harm to the American people, on health care, on electricity costs, on tariffs, that the American people are far more down on Trump than on the Republicans than they were.”
This is going to come as welcome news to House Democrats, many of whom think Schumer is weak-kneed and on the brink of capitulating again to Republicans and President Donald Trump.
Schumer’s view on funding fight. As a reminder, the Democrats’ position right now is that Congress should fund the government until Oct. 31 while permanently extending the enhanced premium subsidies for Obamacare and reversing the massive Medicaid cuts in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
Schumer also is seeking to bar Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought from impounding funds approved by Congress or offering more rescissions packages.
These are all absolute non-starters for Republicans.
With so much at stake, House Republicans will try today to pass a clean CR until Nov. 21. The vote is scheduled for around 10:20 a.m. Thune has locked in votes on the Republican CR, as well as the Democratic alternative from Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Both of these will fail in the Senate. GOP leaders then seem ready to send senators home for the scheduled recess until Sept. 29, just a day before the funding deadline.
Schumer is convinced that Trump and Republicans will own the shutdown, which flies in the face of decades of political history about the fallout from these types of showdowns.
“Look, Donald Trump is heading the show here,” Schumer said. “And he has said, ‘Don’t negotiate with the Democrats. We don’t need them.’ There’s one of two things. Either he doesn’t understand the Senate — even in its most rudimentary way — or he doesn’t know how to count. The only good way to get this done is a bipartisan negotiation.”
According to Schumer, Johnson and Thune are simply Trump’s puppets and exhibit “weakness” for not wanting to sit down with Democrats.
Schumer said Democrats “love the contrast” of their bill and the GOP’s, chiefly because, in his view, Americans prefer bipartisanship.
To be clear, Schumer has shifted appreciably on the political implications of a shutdown with Trump in the White House. In March, one of his principal reasons for keeping the government open was that Republicans would make a shutdown painful.
But now, nearly seven months later, Trump’s poll numbers have slid, especially on the economy. Schumer also said he’s working much closer with Jeffries to plot this showdown:
“We want changes in health care to undo the damage they have done, and we want to make sure if we pass any appropriations bills, they can’t just undo it unilaterally with Vought, OMB and rescissions. We’ve made that clear for months, and we’ve been united for months. Our whole caucuses are united, just as we were all united.”
Yet this is where it gets hairy for Schumer. There’s no chance that Republicans are going to roll back OBBB Medicaid cuts. And it’s equally unlikely that Republicans will agree to handcuff the Trump administration’s ability to cut federal funding by rescissions.
Check out this very interesting exchange:
Schumer: “Why would you go forward with [the appropriations] process if they’re going to undo it anyway?”
Jake: “Well, that’s a good question, but that means there’s going to be an interminable government shutdown.”
Schumer: “We believe the American people will understand that they are causing a shutdown, again, by not being [bipartisan], by not wanting to do anything on health care at all, and by Trump. I mean, it’s amazing what he did to say, don’t negotiate with Democrats. Go talk to just go to people on the street and say, when Trump says, don’t talk with Democrats. Is he to blame for the shutdown? They say, ‘Yes, of course.’”
In case you somehow missed that, that’s Schumer explaining how Democrats believe they can win a shutdown.
Schumer also described Democrats’ position as “quite strong.”
Politics. We’ll give you a little taste of what else we talked about. You’ll have to watch the episode to get a full run down.
We asked Schumer if he believes Democrats are going to win the Senate majority in November 2026, and he said “we have a damn good chance, much better than we did Jan. 1.”
Of course, we asked Schumer why he hasn’t endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City.
“Look, the bottom line is that I know Mamdami,” Schumer said. “We worked on things for several years successfully. I get along with him well, we sat down last Monday and had a very serious talk, a lengthy talk, and we’re going to keep talking.”
We pressed him on the issue, but Schumer wouldn’t bite: “We’re going to keep talking. Any other questions?”
One more thing: Schumer didn’t commit to running for reelection in 2028, when he would be nearly 78 years old.
“Look – my first focus is winning in 2026, getting back the Senate in 2026, and that is my focus,” Schumer said. “It’s sort of my North Star.”
