Chuck Schumer Claims Dems Have 'Real Direction Now' — Days After Party Cracks Were Revealed

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke about the state of the Democratic party after a contentious week during which he was criticized by many of his party members.

Schumer sat down for The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast with Lulu Garcia-Navarro on Monday and Saturday. The episode was released Sunday, days after Schumer and several other Democrats bent the knee to Republicans by signing off on a GOP spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. The move highlighted apparent division amongst party members.

Despite this, Schumer claimed that Democrats are authentic and have “real direction now.” He added that Democrats, known as the party for working people, did not publicly voice how they were fighting for the working class in recent years, to their detriment. According to Schumer, that’s no longer the case.

Schumer also dodged Garcia-Navarro’s question about whether he thinks it’s time for him to retire. Instead, he claimed that the party members are all united in their front against President Donald Trump.

“I think we have mutual respect in our caucus, and we are all united, no matter how people voted on this vote, to continue fighting Trump. We are a united and strong caucus fighting against Trump,” Schumer claimed. “We disagreed on this issue, but that doesn’t diminish in any way how we’re going to fight every step of the way against Trump. And I believe that we’re going to have some real successes.”

Garcia-Navarro also asked Schumer about whether or not he believed Democrats had his back for a 2028 primary, which he claimed was too far out of his focus at the moment.

“That’s a long time away. I am focused on bringing Trump’s numbers down, his popularity down, exposing what he has done to America and what he will do,” he said. “That’s my focus right now. You know, three years from now is a long way to speculate. I believe that my hard work against Trump will pay off.”

Echoing his previous sentiments during a floor speech, Schumer also defended his decision to backtrack on his plan to filibuster and vote against the GOP spending bill.

“A shutdown would shut down all government agencies, and it would solely be up to Trump and DOGE and Musk what to open again because they could determine what was essential. So their goal of decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown,” Schumer said, adding that he was aware his decision would be unpopular among Democrats.

“The bottom line is if the filibuster would have been used and the government shut down, the devastation would be terrible. You see, we’ve had government shutdowns before, but never against such nihilists, such anti-government fanatics as Trump, DOGE, Musk,” Schumer said. “They’ve given us a playbook, by the way. [Russell] Vought has already has written what he wants to shut down if he got a shutdown. Trump wanted a shutdown. Musk wanted a shutdown. Ask yourself why.”

By contrast, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that the decision by Schumer and other Democrats to vote in favor of the legislation was “unthinkable.”

“This turns the federal government into a slush fund for Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” sheadded.

“And so to me, it is almost unthinkable why Senate Democrats would vote to hand the few pieces of leverage that we have away for free when we’ve been sent here to protect Social Security, protect Medicaid and protect Medicare.”

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