Schumer Democrats have a real direction now?

Schumer: Democrats have ‘a real direction now’
Alexander Bolton
Mon, March 17, 2025

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has been the target of scathing criticism from members of his own party after voting for a Republican-drafted stopgap spending bill that cut many nondefense programs, says things are looking good for the Democratic Party, which he says has “a real direction now.”

Schumer told The New York Times that President Trump’s agenda of slashing the federal government to pave the way for trillions of dollars in tax cuts has underscored the Democratic Party’s identity as the party of workers, even though some Democrats fear that’s no longer seen as true.

“I don’t think we have an authenticity problem,” Schumer told the Times’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

“We have a real direction now. I feel good about it,” the embattled leader proclaimed.


“First, you gotta look at who the Democratic Party is and who the Republican Party is,” he argued. “We are the party of working people. We feel that very, very strongly. That’s who we have always been.”

Some progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), however, have warned the Democratic Party has drifted away from working-class Americans, citing that shift as why the party lost the White House and Senate in the 2024 election.

Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, accused Democrats in November of abandoning the working class and their party’s leaders of defending the “status quo.”

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders said in a statement after the election.

Brown argued on the social platform X earlier this month that “the Democratic Party’s reputation has become toxic” and that it no longer represented workers.


“We must reckon with how far our party has strayed from our New Deal roots. How we see ourselves — the party of the people, the party of the working class and the middle class — no longer matches up with what most voters think,” he said.

When Garcia-Navarro noted to Schumer that Americans don’t view the Democratic Party as representing workers, Schumer appeared to concede the point but asserted that it’s repositioning itself.

“That’s right, and that’s where we’re moving. That’s where we have to move,” he said.

Schumer argued the Democratic Party’s values never changed but that its messaging became muddled in recent years.

He acknowledged that his message that Republicans want to cut health care and other social services to pay for tax cuts for billionaires isn’t new, but he asserted that it drifted from Democrats’ focus and wasn’t emphasized as much as it should have been.


“We lost it,” he said. “We always cared about the working people. But in the last few years, while we did a lot for working people, here’s what we didn’t do: We didn’t tell people about it.

“We thought, just by legislating, people would know about it. They don’t!” he said, summing up what he sees as one of the party’s biggest mistakes while former President Biden was in office.

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Schumer on voting for funding bill: Trump, Musk ‘damage’ could be ‘much worse’ under shutdown
Tara Suter
Sun, March 16, 2025 at 5:52 PM EDT·2 min read
165


Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a Sunday podcast episode that “damage” from President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk could be “much worse” under a government shutdown.

“Their goal of shutting down, of decimating, the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown,” Schumer told The New York Times’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro on “The Interview” podcast. “It would be devastating.”

“Two days from now in a shutdown, they could say, ‘Well, SNAP, food stamps for kids, is not essential. It’s gone. All veterans’ offices in rural areas are gone. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, they’re not essential. We’re cutting them back,” he added. “So, it’d be horrible. The damage they can do under a shutdown is much worse than any other damage that they could do.”

Schumer’s comments followed his vote to advance a Republican-crafted funding bill alongside nine other Senate Democrats despite intense opposition from many Democrats. The 10 Democrats’ votes to advance the bill helped avoid a looming government shutdown.


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday went after Schumer after he said he would vote to advance the bill.

“There is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters at the time. “And this is not just about progressive Democrats. This is across the board — the entire party.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Sunday backed Schumer’s leadership but said the caucus “must change our tactics” to be effective.

“I think the only way that we are going to be effective as a caucus is if we change our tactics,” Murphy told NBC’s Kristen Welker. “And we have to have a conversation inside our caucus to make sure that we are going to do that.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House and a spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency for comment.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Chuck Schumer Claims Dems Have 'Real Direction Now' — Days After Party Cracks Were Revealed
Taiyler S. Mitchell
Updated Mon, March 17, 2025 at 7:55 AM EDT·3 min read
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Schumer SurrendersScroll back up to restore default view.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spoke about the state of the Democratic Party after a contentious week in which he was criticized by many of his party members.

Schumer sat down to speak with Lulu Garcia-Navarro for The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast 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 among 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’s 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 whether he believes Democrats have his back for a 2028 primary.

“That’s a long time away,” he replied. “I am focused on bringing Trump’s numbers down, his popularity down, exposing what he has done to America and what he will do. 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,” Schumer said, referring to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its de facto head Elon Musk.


“So their goal of decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown,” he continued, 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, before mentioning Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. “They’ve given us a playbook, by the way. Vought has already 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 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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