The co-founder of a leading progressive group says Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer faces a difficult challenge in winning back the trust of Democrats following his controversial support last week of a Republican-crafted federal government funding bill that averted a government shutdown.
The move by Schumer, the longtime lawmaker from New York and top Democrat in the Senate, infuriated many, not only on the left but across the party, who want Democrat leaders to take a tougher stand in resisting President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“Can he win back the trust of those who don’t have faith in Democratic leadership?” asked Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), a major grassroots organization that promotes economic populism and democracy through electoral and issue advocacy efforts.
FACING PRESSURE FROM HIS OWN PARTY, SCHUMER DEFENDS HIMSELF
Green, in a Fox News Digital interview, answered his own question, saying, “The answer is yes, but it’s uphill.”
Schumer initially signaled last week that Senate Democrats would fight back against the GOP’s partisan funding bill. But one day later, he said he would reluctantly support the measure and help deliver to the GOP the Democrat votes needed to boost the bill to passage through the Senate.
DEMOCRATS LASH OUT AT SCHUMER FOR ‘BETRAYAL’ OF SIDING WITH TRUMP
In an interview Tuesday on ABC News’ “The View,” Schumer said he “knew it was a difficult choice” but added that “I felt I had to do it.” And he argued that a partial government shutdown would have allowed Trump to inflict “devastation like we’ve never seen.”
Despite the intense backlash from his own party, Schumer said hours earlier in a “CBS Mornings” interview that he’s still the “best leader for the Senate.”
“We have a lot of good people,” Schumer said. “But I am the best at winning Senate seats.”
But Green said many in the PCCC membership, which the group says stands at roughly 1 million people, don’t agree.
The PCCC is asking in a questionnaire to its membership, “Do you have confidence in Chuck Schumer as Senate Democratic Leader?
According to PCCC, with nearly 22,000 responses by Tuesday afternoon, 84% said “no.”
DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S FAVORABLE RATINGS DROP TO RECORD LOW
Green, pointing to national polls from NBC News and CNN that were released this past weekend, which indicated Democratic Party favorability sinking to record lows, highlighted “that there’s not a lot of faith in those who call themselves Democratic leaders right now. And therefore, we need a lot more of going on offense.”
Indivisible, another major pro-Democrat organizing group that has long been a leader in the Trump resistance, on Saturday called for Schumer to step down as leader.
While the PCCC hasn’t gone that far, Green charged that “those who call themselves Democratic leaders are not in a position to come out from behind a curtain and vouch for a strategy, especially when that strategy is caving. They just don’t have the credibility.”
Green argued that “I think that was one of the things that Chuck Schumer got really wrong and that he probably would admit that he got wrong, which is a lot of senators and a lot of groups that he considers allies were taken by surprise and felt a certain whiplash.”
PCCC was one of the groups that organized protests at three stops this week on Schumer’s planned book tour. The events were abruptly postponed on Monday morning due to “security concerns.”
Asked about his group’s effort, Green said “this is a time to channel public anger, not hide from it.”
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