Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued to criticize Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday, suggesting he voluntarily relinquished Democrats’ leverage in the government funding fight.
“I myself don’t give away anything for nothing,” Pelosi told reporters during a San Francisco town hall on Republican lawmakers’ alleged cuts to Medicaid — despite no existing proposal from GOP lawmakers to cut the entitlement program. “I think that’s what happened the other day.”
Though Pelosi said she was confident in Schumer’s continued leadership, the former speaker’s blistering critique of the Senate Democratic leader’s strategy reflects widespread anger among the party’s base over Schumer’s decision to vote to advance the GOP spending bill Friday. Many congressional Democrats are urging Schumer to escalate resistance tactics against the Republican-controlled Senate and refuse to work with GOP lawmakers. (RELATED: ‘It’s Time For You To Go’: CBS Anchors Tell Chuck Schumer Point-Blank His Party No Longer Trusts His Leadership)
“His [Schumer’s] popularity is somewhere between Elon Musk and the Ebola virus,” a senior House Democrat told Axios.
Pelosi previously criticized Schumer’s decision to vote for the GOP spending bill to stave off a partial government shutdown, telling the Senate leader he should “listen to the women” — the Democratic appropriators — who were offering an alternative funding measure that was a nonstarter for both Senate and House GOP leadership.
Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz took a shot at Schumer on Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast Tuesday, telling the rumored 2028 presidential candidate that Senate Democratic leadership “gave up our leverage” in the government funding clash with GOP lawmakers.
Some congressional Democrats have privately urged New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to launch a primary challenge against Schumer in 2028. Ocasio-Cortez has declined to rule out a Senate bid and has called on Schumer to retire at the end of his current term.
“Schumer has been in politics for a long time, and I would hope that this is his final term, and he opens it up for someone new,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Schumer has consistently defended his decision to back the Trump-backed spending bill, saying that letting government funding lapse would have been worse.
“The higher you climb, the more fiercely the winds blow,” Schumer told the Wall Street Journal in an interview on March 14. “The only thing that keeps you from being blown off the mountain is an internal gyroscope.”
Pelosi reportedly played a prominent role in pressuring former President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
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