Chuck Schumer denies repeating Biden's mistakes amid Democrat demands he step down

Chuck Schumer isn't backing off defending his decision to vote for the Republican's budget bill despite widespread condemnation from his party and calls for him to step down from Democratic leadership.

The Democrat's Senate leader joined a small group in the party last week who voted for the GOP spending bill to avert a government shutdown.

Schumer defended the decision, claiming that his party has no leverage and warning a shutdown would 'allow DOGE to shift into overdrive' and give President Donald Trump 'the keys to the city, state and country.'

Still, his reasoning wasn't enough to dissuade furious members of his party from launching an all-out war of words against the Democratic leader.

The 74-year-old lawmaker says he is not repeating the mistakes of former President Joe Biden, who refused for months to step aside when Democrats were worried about his viability for reelection.

He rejects any claims that he is no longer on the pulse of the party and that his vote was intentional and out of conviction to stop something worse from happening than a government shut down.

'Leader Schumer, are you feeling pressure to step down?' NBC Meet the Press host Kristen Welker asked the Senate Minority Leader.

'Look, I'm not stepping down,' the New York Democrat insisted. 'And let me just say this, Kristen – I knew when I cast my vote against the government shutdown that it would be – that there would be a lot of controversy. And there was.'

'But let me tell you and your audience why I did it, why I felt it was so important,' he went on.

Schumer then listed how a shutdown would be '20 times worse' than passing the GOP-backed continuing resolution bill, which keeps the government funded for the next six months and averts a shutdown.

He said that Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would end SNAP, gut mass transit and eliminate Medicaid, Social Security and veterans benefits.

'Under a shutdown, the Executive Branch has sole power to determine what is, 'essential.' And they can determine without any court supervision,' Schumer detailed. 'The courts have ruled it's solely up to the executive what to shut down. With Musk, and DOGE, and Trump, and this guy [Russell] Vought… as the head OMB, they would eviscerate the federal government.'

He said that under a shutdown, DOGE and Trump would be emboldened by how the federal government is able to survive and operate for that short period of time with limited staff and agencies.

While it's true that there are select essential services, agencies, departments and staff that work through a shutdown, it's a temporary accommodation when budgets do not pass on time and usually leads to a massive backlog once it fully reopens.

Schumer claims that Musk and Trump would give more tax breaks to their billionaire friends while cutting what Democrats claim are essential government services funded by taxpayer dollars.

'It would [be] devastating,' the leader said. 'There's no off-ramp. Who determines how long the shutdown would last? Only those evil people at the top of the Executive Branch in the Trump administration.'

Schumer's actions have led to calls from Democrats for him to be primaries by someone even more progressive – like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

But with a Democratic Party already struggling with relatability and identity among the American voting bloc, others are warning not to go even further left.

As the 2026 midterms approach, Democrats are concerns that if they lean more into the progressive movement of the party they will be hard pressed to win back a majority in either the House or the Senate.

Schumer has served in the Senate since 1999 and in a variety of leadership roles within the party since the early 2000s. Before that, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for New York's 9th, 10th and 16th districts at different times between 1981 and 1999.

More recently in his career, Schumer was instrumental in urging Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race when Democrats felt he could no longer beat Trump and that he didn't have the 'fight' in him to lead the party any more.

'I've had conversations with Democrats, Leader Schumer, who say this moment feels very similar,' Welker divulged in her Sunday interview on Meet the Press. 'Are you making the same mistake that President Biden did?'

He shot back: 'No, absolutely not. I did this out of conviction.'

'In my caucus, we have a disagreement as to, you know, some people voted one way, some people voted the other,' he added. 'But we've all agreed to respect each other because each side saw why the other side felt so strongly about it. And our caucus is united in fighting Donald Trump every step of the way.'

'It was a vote of principle, you know?' he added. 'Sometimes when you're a leader, you have to do things to avoid a real danger that might come down the curve.'

'I did it out of pure conviction as to what a leader should do and what the right thing for America and my party was. People disagree.'

In addition to Schumer, nine other Democrats voted to advance the continuing resolution bill.

This includes Sens. Dick Durbin (ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), John Fetterman (Penn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Only Shaheen and King voted yes on the underlying funding bill.

Cortez Masto echoed Schumer's concerns about handing Trump and Musk more power to gut the federal government. She also noted that a shutdown would place thousands of federal workers on unpaid furlough in the meantime.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican who voted in opposition of both the procedural and final votes for the funding bill.