WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says he won't resign his post, despite pressure from some in his party after he voted to move forward with a Republican spending bill that avoided a government shutdown.
“Look, I’m not stepping down,” Schumer said in an interview with NBC's “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. The New York senator said he knew voting for the bill backed by Republican President Donald Trump would spark “a lot of controversy."
“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,” he said. “People disagree.”
Democrats last week were confronted with two painful options: allowing passage of a bill they believe gave Trump vast discretion on spending decisions or letting funding lapse. After Schumer said he'd vote to advance the spending measure, 10 Democrats supported breaking the party’s filibuster and allowing the bill to pass.
Schumer's move has sparked outrage from some Democrats and progressive activists who protested at his office and called on him to resign his position. They said they'd like to see him face a primary challenge — perhaps from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The uproar prompted Schumer last week to postpone his book tour amid a series of planned progressive demonstrations.
Schumer isn't up for reelection until 2028. He told NBC that the spending bill that funds the government through September was “certainly bad.”
But he argued that not voting to provide the funding would have been “15 or 20 times worse.” He called his action “a vote of principle," arguing that “sometimes when you’re a leader, you have to do things to avoid a real danger that might come down the curve."
In an interview that also aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Vermont Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized Schumer and other members of Democratic Senate leadership. But he abruptly ended the interview when asked about Ocasio-Cortez potentially being elected to the Senate.
“I don’t want to talk about inside-the-beltway stuff,” Sanders said.
Another outspoken progressive, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said on CNN’s “State of the Union" that “There is no doubt that there is anger there, and people were very, very disappointed in the Senate.”
Khanna said the anger stemmed from Senate Democrats not seeking concessions for their support of the GOP-backed spending package — including possible limits on government spending and job cutting efforts being led on Trump's behalf by billionaire Elon Musk.
Asked if he'd support Ocasio-Cortez challenging Schumer during a 2028 Democratic Senate primary in New York, Khanna said the decision to run was up to the congresswoman.
“I haven’t talked to her directly," Khanna said.
He added: “But here’s what I will say: The American people are fed up with the old guard. There needs to be a renewal.”