Oh My: Schumer Book Tour Events Postponed for ‘Security Concerns’; UPDATE: Entire Tour ‘Postponed’

Gee, whatever could this mean? Has Chuck Schumer angered Republicans recently? How many MAGA activists would even care about anything Schumer has to say at a book tour event anyway?

Statement: “Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled.”

— Annie Karni (@anniekarni) March 17, 2025

Why are there ‘security concerns’ over Schumer’s book tour? Don’t look to the Right for answers — the rage is coming from the Left. Schumer’s humiliating retreat from his call to arms on Wednesday over the CR has progressives infuriated and lashing out at the Senate Minority Leader, who want a fight with someone, anyone to deal with their current impotence:

The Democratic base wants a fight. Chuck Schumer won’t give it to them.

The Senate minority leader on Thursday backed away from the shutdown confrontation that many liberal voters and activist leaders had been pushing for — arguing that closing the government would only empower President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk in their bureaucracy-slashing campaign.

That decision sent shockwaves through the left and had many in their ranks seething at a top party leader who had sought to win them over in recent years.

I guarantee you that no one on the Right is “seething” at Schumer. Most of us hope he remains in his current position, given his utter lack of strategic consideration and tactical incompetence, both clearly on display the past week. I also guarantee you that the Right has no interest in showing up to a Schumer book tour event, even just to protest.

That is, if the ‘security concerns’ are legit at all. The postponements include a conversation with Rep. Richie Torres (D-NY) about anti-Semitism, an event that made all sorts of sense just a couple of weeks ago. Torres has been courageous on the issue of Israel and its defense against Hamas in a war Hamas launched. But Torres shredded Schumer and other Senate Democrats over their decision to forego the filibuster on the CR, at which point the event suddenly got postponed indefinitely, it appears:

A book event for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moderated by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), slated for Tuesday night at New York’s Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, has been postponed, a staffer for the Manhattan venue confirmed to Jewish Insider on Monday.

The postponement of the gathering, one of several scheduled events this week around the release of Schumer’s new book, Antisemitism in America: A Warning, comes days after Schumer argued against forcing a government shutdown as a negotiating tool, saying it would further empower President Donald Trump and White House advisor Elon Musk. …

After the Senate vote, Torres criticized the Democrats who voted in favor of cloture, saying they “are making a strategic miscalculation that we as a party will live to regret.”

The event was removed from the Streicker Center’s website over the weekend. An archived version of the page saved on March 15 indicates that the event was posted through at least midday Saturday. 

That event was already selected for a protest from Jewish groups angry at Schumer’s role in keeping a bill addressing anti-Semitism from advancing:

“The only thing Chuck Schumer knows about Antisemitism is how to spread it,” Jewish activist Aliza Licht wrote in a statement.

“The Jewish community will not allow Schumer to masquerade as the self-proclaimed ‘shomer of the Jews’ when he has fueled Antisemitism in America with his double-speak and failure to protect Jewish Civil Rights,” Licht said. …

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, last year promised leaders in the community that he would attempt to pass the proposed Antisemitism Awareness Act to help curb antisemitism on campuses across the country.

But the effort stalled over disagreements between him and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) about how to push it through. Schumer wanted it tacked onto legislation such as the National Defense Authorization Act involving more money for the military, while Johnson sought for it to be a stand-alone vote, Axios reported.

That doesn’t exactly look like a ‘security concern.’ It looks more like a political concern, and an embarrassing start to a book tour hailing Schumer as some sort of eminence grise on anti-Semitism. That’s especially the case considering that his party has aligned itself with the anti-Semitic activists running intimidation campaigns against Jewish students and faculty on campuses, and in some cases against nearby Jewish businesses as well. And now Schumer’s party wants to defend a Syrian immigrant disseminating Hamas propaganda in those campaigns and organizing violent ‘occupations’ of campus buildings from deportation.

For these reasons, I suspect that political embarrassment is a more likely reason than security concerns for postponing Schumer’s book tour. But to the extent that legit security concerns have arisen, look to where the rage is fomenting to learn who the real security ‘concerns’ are. 

Update: It wasn’t initially clear if the postponement involved just a few public events. Nope — the entire book tour has apparently been shelved, at least for now:

A tour around Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) upcoming book, Antisemitism in America, has been postponed as the New York Democrat faces blowback over his recent vote to avert a government shutdown. …

A spokesperson for Schumer told Punchbowl News later Monday morning that the tour was postponed, citing security concerns.

Axios confirms this, and the reason why: “Resistance backlash upends Chuck Schumer’s book tour”. Yeah, this isn’t because Republicans are giving Schumer the Nelson Muntz Laugh treatment.